Xcom: Incursion
by Drewman784
Summary: Every race thus far has utterly failed to stop the Reapers, always embroiled in pesky politics and wars to take any notice of the coming storm. This time though...this time is different. Can you feel the equally raging storm coming? I can. Can you? Side story: Incursion: Alliance Effect *Earlier chapters rewritten. Hiatus*
1. Timeline

**Hello everyone and welcome to the first prologue/timeline of Xcom: Human incursion! This takes inspiration from various titles in the Xcom/Mass Effect category, namely from the author Timedraven. If you want writing actually** ** _worth_** **your time, go visit him, he's got some pretty good stories. Forgive me,** ** _I'm not the best writer ever_** **so please; forgive me if I make a few mistakes. Reviews of any kind** ** _are_** **welcome and I love reading your guy's feedback on my work so I can improve and become even better. This also takes a little inspiration from my other works such as Xcom: Ethereal Ally and other thoughts I haven't gotten down on paper or computer yet. I am incorporating other series such as Civilization: Beyond Earth, mostly because it doesn't get the attention it really deserves. I may add more later but we'll have to see, you may recommend other series in the reviews or PM and I'll look into it. But that's enough of me talking; I don't own anything really important so you wouldn't want to sue me.**

 **50,000 years ago- Remaining Prothean scientists salvage a wrecked ship near Ilos and activate it. The Protheans then develop a massive bomb which would be used to blow the Reapers in dark space out of existence. Before the Protheans could get to the dark space via Citadel, Sovereign appeared, noticing the Prothean presence. It then proceeded to destroy the Prothean ship before it could reach dark space. In a blaze of vengeance however, the Protheans activated the bomb. Sovereign attempted to protect the Citadel and in doing so, saved the Citadel and caused severe damage himself. The Citadel however, was knocked deeply off its axis and into space.**

 ** _Human timeline told from Human Codex, dated in Earth Time._**

 **1962 January 9th- First contact with the 'Zudjari' is made. Zudjari invasion of the United States and various other countries in Africa and Asia begins. All attempts to contact the invaders have thus far failed. The Xcom project is activated.**

 **1962 January 12th- Zudjari presence on Earth is confirmed by multiple countries including the United States of America. The world goes into chaos as riots begin in Rural and Urban areas, as the Zudjari threat grows.**

 **1962 January 20th- As riots grow in violence, Spanish police open fire on protesting civilians in Madrid. The incident is dubbed 'The Madrid incidente.' This action throws the country in pandemonium and brings the already teetering country on the brink of a massive civil war. Meanwhile, the Zudjari now control a significant amount of land in Thailand, Sudan and southern Florida.**

 **1962 February 10th- Some poor and rural countries are now engaged in all out civil wars. Zudjari forces spread out and forces now dip into Vietnam. Zudjari forces attempt to reach out into southern Chinese lands but are harshly pushed back. Saudi Arabia invades Oman and Yemen but the actions go largely ignored as countries everywhere are caught up in their own problems.**

 **1962 February 21st- American and Xcom's combined forces, in desperation launch 'Operation Silent Blade' to retake the Floridian mainland. Not expecting a counter attack of this magnitude from the Humans, Zudjari forces are caught by surprise and it's a Zudjari massacre as several strongholds are re-taken and several Zudjari are captured for autopsies and interrogations as well as several intact weapons are retrieved. Encouraged by this change of events in the west, a combination of what was left of the Thailand armed forces and the Chinese army storm the Zudjari bases of operations. Several hundred 'sleep walkers' are retrieved for scientists. It is to be noted that sprawling Alien structures have been planted into the ground by the Zudjari and have been terraforming the Earth's surface. Such structures are quickly targeted by Human air raids.**

 **1962 March 14th- The first Laser rifle porotypes are tested in the field and results in large satisfactory among the Human Armed Forces. Many exchanges have been passed between the Zudjari and Human forces, resulting in varied results of victory and defeat. Soviet and Chinese scientists find success in reverse engineering Alien craft.**

 **1962 May 1st- Zudjari forces are pushed back considerably by now but so are Human forces across the globe with Xcom's aggressive, risky and daring moves leading the charge. Sudan however has been completely engulfed by Zudjari forces and is threating to tip over into Ethiopia, Egypt, Chad as well as various other countries in Africa. Central and Northern Africa has become a near impenetrable Zudjari stronghold. Many Humans however still remain in Africa leading a strong guerilla war against the invaders. At the helm of the guerilla war is** **Amare Ajanlekoko, a now renowned African hero for his bravery and valor. Guerilla fighters led by Amare continuously harass Zudjari forces whilst raiding several Zudjari bases.**

 **1962 July 9th- Zudjari forces in America have been completely destroyed and pushed back to their home world using a "'wormhole' of sorts" As described by one scientist. Zudjari forces begin to retreat from Asia as reverse engineered alien ships piloted by Humans start to roam Chinese and Soviet borders. Other countries ask China and Soviet Union for this technology but the two communist nations refuse, rather keeping the upper hand over their Human rivals.**

 **1962 September 2nd- Zudjari armed forces are now completely destroyed or captured in Asia. But as the Zudjari 'wormhole' closes, several hundred Zudjari are left untended by their 'Mosaic' and without guidance, go either completely insane or give up and lay down arms, surrendering to the Humans. Zudjari refugee camps pop up all over China and northern Thailand. These 'Refugee camps' are secretly used as labor camps by the Chinese to expand their work force.**

 **1962 September 4th- The US begins project 'Starscape' in case of another Alien invasion.**

 **1962 November 18th- NATO forces move into Northern Africa to wipe up Zudjari populations. The Soviet Union and China do not comment on this. NATO and African guerilla fighters encounter each other and plan together in secret on a major counter attack.**

 **1962 December 21st- Zudjari forces are pushed back severely due to a major counter attack by Human forces.**

 **1962 December 24nd- The world is in utter shock as a nuclear missile is dropped on the former Sudan capitol. No comment on who launched the nuke but many suspect the Soviet Union as the culprits, further heightening the cold war's severity.**

 **1962 December 25th (Christmas) - All Zudjari forces in Africa surrender. The last remains of the Zudjari in various other parts of the world give up as well. The Zudjari population is facing an uncertain future as protests to outright kill the rest of the Zudjari rise and many protests turn violent.**

 **1963 November 21st- The decision to destroy all Zudjari weaponry (While keeping the few civil benefits) falls through as China and the Soviet Union back out of the agreement. All other major powers sign the agreement however. China and the Soviet Union urge several 3rd world countries in Asia to back out of the agreement and succeed. America and her allies begin to work on the alien tech in secret.**

 **1979 April 27th- The 'Pan Asian Alliance' is born, bringing all of Asia together for the first time. Zudjari are now accepted as second and third class citizens as their populations on Earth rise with their genetically enhanced fast re-production system.**

 **1979 October 7th- South America (And countries 'below' Mexico) unite to form the 'South American coalition' where notably, the Zudjari population is lowest. The South American Coalition is severely anti-Zudjari and their government quickly follows in the path of fascism. Many historians compare these actions to the rise of the Nazis. This is followed by the creation of the European commonwealth and North American Council.**

 **1980 January 12th- The South American Coalition, Pan Asian Alliance, European commonwealth, North American Council and the Soviet Union are embroiled in war which is later called WWIII. With the Pan Asian Alliance's advanced weapons, they quickly seize the upper hand with the North American Council not far behind. Africa is left alone through the war.**

 **1985 September 5th- The African Federation is formed and the several super powers in the war try to win Africa's favor. None succeed. The Soviet Union and the Pan Asian Coalition announce their alliance.**

 **1987 January 12th- WWIII ends with human casualties over 1.5 billion and Zudjari casualties over 500,000, half their population. The war ends in a stalemate across the board with 3 nuclear weapons having been dropped in the European Commonwealth (Poland), Pan Asian Alliance (China) and the North American Alliance (Canada).**

 **1990 January 1st- The UN is disbanded and 'The Council' is put in place. Due to popular demand, the Council is more militaristic than the UN was and is prepared incase another war, Human vs Human or Human vs alien.**

 **1993 March 18** **th** **\- A Zudjari ship is discovered by Xcom orbiting Earth. The ship quickly self-destructs before Human forces can arrive. Conspiracy theorists however claim that the Americans captured he ship and brought it to Earth to study.**

 **1996 October 11** **th** **\- The Soviet Union is able to sustain itself because of its advanced mining operation in the asteroid belt.**

 **2000 June 30th- As the Earth's population grows, a moon base is established at the same time as the ISS (International Space Station). The Base's population quickly reaches the hundreds.**

 **2009 April 6** **th** **-** **Amare Ajanlekoko dies of natural causes. He is proclaimed a hero.**

 **2014 March 12th- The Moon base is fully operational and a small city resides on the Moon's 'Bright' side. People can see the city's lights from the Earth surface. As the world's population starts to regain its pre-war status, the world is going to once again be embroiled in war.**

 **2015 February 11th- The Ethereal invasion starts with all the force of an avalanche. The Ethereals strike in Munich, Germany, European commonwealth. At first, the sudden attack is thought to be a terrorist attack. Soon though, an alien ship enters Commonwealth air space and strikes the city with plasma strikes. By the time the Nation's militia is able to arrive, it's an all-out war scene with local police fighting valiantly against the invading forces. When the militia arrives though, the aliens are beaten back and defeated. Several autopsies are conducted and all available technology is salvaged for the Human and Zudjari's own purposes. While the Ethereals own technology is only slightly more advanced, all useful technology is immediately put to use, including designs for an 'Arc Thrower' used to capture enemy combatants.**

 **2015 February 12th- Another attack occurs in Chicago, USA, North American Council. The attack is even more severe and the city is leveled by the time the army can get there. The Xcom project is re-activated.**

 **2015 February 13th- The ISS goes dark. It is later found, destroyed and in utter ruin. The Moon base is put on high alert and the small militia there grows.**

 **2015 February 31st- Ethereal attacks occur in rapid succession with an average of an attack every day. So far the attacks have been sustainable by Human militaries but with every attack, the enemy seemingly gets stronger, despite heavy casualties on their side. Scientists theorize that they use clones to sustain their army size.**

 **2015 March 5th- Project 'Starscape' is completed by the North American Council. The world watches in amazement as what is now known as the one (And to this date only) mothership class leaving orbit from Earth. It's named the 'Eternal Pride.' The ship is equipped with state of the art stealth systems and fly's right under the Ethereals noses and towards space at 10x the speed of light (FTL). This great achievement is accomplished using [CLASSIFIED] as the main power source. After the launch, all evidence is erased of project Starscape and all data regarding FTL travel is destroyed, in fear of it landing in hostile hands. Namely, other Human spies.**

 **2015 June 29th- Conditions on Earth worsen as the Ethereals almost completely destroy the Moon base. The same day, the Eternal Pride arrives out of FTL and lands on the world 'Terra Nova.' Colonization begins immediately with its 20,000 occupants.**

 **2015 Septmer1st- Plasma weapons are perfected and the tide is turned against the Ethereals as Humans and Zudjari are now able to level the playing field. In other news, the new Terra Nova colony, named 'New London' is a major success and they begin to prosper in technology, health and education.**

 **2015 October 9th- 'Psionics' is discovered among humans. It is estimated that every one in three Humans are Psionic positive. Zudjari are tested as well but scans come out empty. Although Psionic scanning has found an equally powerful ability among Zudjari. This new skill is more physical than mental and is called 'physici potentia'. It estimated that every one in three Zudjari are Physici positive. These new found powers help push back the Ethereal threat.**

 **2016 April 14th- The Ethereal 'Temple Ship' is destroyed with help from the 'Volunteer' who was proclaimed KIA, leading the Temple ship into space so it wouldn't destroy Earth in a black hole. The troops that survived the massive counter offensive remember the Uber Ethereal's threat of a greater foe. Militarization is top priory among the people of Earth. With the temple ship destroyed and without an Uber Ethereal to follow most Alien forces surrender, thus creating need for refugee camps. An increase of Psionics is a direct result of the Temple ship's destruction over Earth, resulting in 60% of Earth's population becoming Psionic potential.**

 **2016 April 16th- Riots and protests begin immediately in light of helping these new aliens. Some people fear another Madrid incident occurring.**

 **2016 June 19th- The final death count for the Ethereal war come into light of the public. 1 Billion People lost, 70% were civilians. The general populace is outraged, more so than when the death counts for WWIII were revealed.**

 **2018 March 8th- Zudjari are now generally recognized as first class citizens, equal to humans. Ethereal species still remain a lower class.**

 **2019 25th- Plans to restore the Moon Base are underway and it is expected to take several years to restore the damage. Plans to launch the first manned mission to Mars now seem in reach and the first mission to mars is scheduled for 2025.**

 **2023 February 1st- The Moon Base is back to how it had been before Ethereal attack. A plan for a 'Construction Yard' is put forth. The station's primary function will be to build ships. It will also have built in lasers to protect itself.**

 **2023 May 9th- Terra Nova now has a populace of over 40,000. The infrastructure is built and city lights can be seen from orbit. Terra Nova citizens have a life expectancy of over 100 years. Mining operations of the Terra Novan moon are commencing and the technology, epically in synthetics and the planet itself are going smoothly. Construction of a space station in orbit of the planet is also underway.**

 **2025 December 11th- The first manned mission to Mars commences. Using salvaged Alien technology from both the Zudjari and Ethereal, the flight will take only a day.**

 **2025 December 12th- The first manned mission to Mars is successful and the astronauts composing of five men and women and five Zudjari are safe. They will depart to come back to Earth shortly.**

 **2026 November 17th- The Terra Novan colonists make an astounding breakthrough. The first true AI is developed. The AI boots up for the first time and the Terra Novan people ask if it 'Feels okay.' After a short while, it responds. 'I am… fine.' The people rejoice until the AI asks a question back at the colonists. 'Am I alive?' This is answered in; 'We don't know yet but we consider you alive.' The AI is sufficed with this response. Over the time, the AI decided to call itself 'primum' which means 'First' in Latin. Primum takes on the avatar of a middle aged woman.**

 **2027 February 22nd- The first Martian colony is founded. The small settlement soon grow as colonists on Earth leave their now resource less planet.**

 **2029 July 17th- The Earth construction yard is finished. In the coming years, the yard will be used as a major industrial hub.**

 **2030 October 9th- Scientists on Terra Nova make an incredible breakthrough in that their planet itself is** ** _alive_** **. By now, several AIs exist and the two ideologies, Synthetics and preserving the planet clash furiously, creating much unrest.**

 **2035 May 30th- In a direct result of political unrest and ideologies, two major factions are created on Terra Nova, The Synthetics and the Planetary Union. Almost instantaneously, war breaks out globally. Giant mechanical machines are created by the Synthetics while gene fusing and taming the local wildlife are the Planetary Union's top priority. Soon, Planetary Union troops can wade through the planet's dangerous miasma while Synthetic troops are all but destroyed in the toxin. All thoughts of their home world are forgotten as the war rages on. The Planetary Union teaches their young that Terra Nova is their new home world while the Synthetics are too busy at the moment with war planning.**

 **2040 January 11th- The Terra Novan war comes to an end with the Synthetics winning. What's left of the Planetary Union is banished to deep space, never to be seen again. It should be noted that humans without synthetic implants or planetary gene moding are allowed to stay.**

 **2040 November 23rd- The Martian colony is now able to sustain itself with over 600,000 occupants.**

 **2046 September 8th- Prothean ruins are discovered on Mars. The archives are surprisingly in good condition and translation of the archives begins immediately. Two things are discovered almost immediately: That the ruins are from a race called Protheans and that there is a Mass relay in the system, which is Pluto's moon, Charon. Human unification is proposed.**

 **2050 January 1st- The Charon Mass Relay is activated from outside the system. From the relay comes a large fleet of ships. A similarly large amount of ships from the Humans and Zudjari coalition meets the new ships. They appear peaceful and negotiations begin as one of the Alien ship's docks with the Earth Construction Yard. They reveal themselves as a species called the 'Volm'. Their species is on verge of extinction from a greater power called the 'Espheni'. Peace is established and the Volm Empire integrates itself in Human society-slowly. Volm are to this date, the only species to have peacefully integrated themselves into Human society. Some Volm still live in their ships to this day though many now live planet side.**

 **2056 January 1st- Human Unification takes place with all of the Human leaders stepping down and forming what is now known as the 'Species Alliance'. With this, all Species Alliance controlled colonies now have the right to govern themselves how they see fit, using the USA's states as an example. All Alien species inside the Alliance are now considered equal to Humans, including Ethereal. Historians remember the 'Eternal Pride' launching from Earth orbit and the Alliance, not knowing that the Synthetics exist, probes are launched to find the missing colonists.**

 **2059 June 11th- The Synthetic colonists on Terra Nova send out probes to search for Earth, for they forget where the location of Earth was.**

 **2060 April 19th- The 'Espheni war' begins. It begins with the Espheni emerging from the Charon Mass Relay in gigantic 3km long ships, firing automatically on Species Alliance ships that were stationed at the Charon Mass Relay. Volm fight alongside Human, Zudjari and Ethereal forces, much to the rest of the Species Alliance's surprise. They had assumed that the Volm would sit back and allow the rest of the coalition take on the Espheni. They were wrong when several Volm ships traveled from Earth to assist in the fight. The tide was soon turned against the Espheni and they were forces to retreat into the relay. Several dog fights take place near the relay after this with Species Alliance forces holding their ground. Xcom remained inactive throughout the war.**

 **2063 June 15th- The last Espheni attack at the relay. After this, there now are no more Espheni attacks, many speculate that they gave up and that the Alliance wasn't worth the ships they lost.**

 **2078 November 11th- A Species Alliance probe comes into contact with a Synthetic probe. Curious, the two powers soon travel to their individual probes. They come into contact with each other and exchange knowledge. Negotiations are to begin immediately.**

 **2078 November 13th- Negotiations take place with the Synthetics and Species Alliance. With the help from Synthetic AIs and Species Alliance technology, the spaces in between the two powers are mapped and every Garden world is set for immediate colonization. For protection, the Synthetics integrate into the Species Alliance, making one Humanity.**

 **2078 December 30th- With the help from Synthetic engineers, a Species Alliance ship is able to achieve 'Hyper Space'. All ships are planned to be outfitted with this new technology as it is far more convenient and sophisticated than their past FTL drives and Mass Relays. All Mass Relays are scheduled for immediate break down for resources.**

 **2100 January 1st- Humanity slowly spreads out among the stars with help from AIs, Hyper Space drives and other integrated species. The Alliance celebrates the new century. Volm are finally tested for Psionics and Physici. Volm only have a slight potential for Physici but not Psionics. To this date, only Humans and some Ethereal races can master Psionics.**

 **2109 July 10th- On a scouting mission at the Eden mass relay, first contact is made with the 'Turians'.**

 **Oh my god, I finally finished the timeline! This took several (stressful) days to complete. Yes, this is also a crossover with Falling Skies and Civilization. If you want me to include other series in this fic, you can PM me or review the series and I'll look into it. I can't guarantee everyone's series will be in though. In this fic, the Council has only discovered a little, little piece of the galaxy as in the Relay network doesn't stretch the entire galaxy. At most because I find exploring an entire galaxy a process that takes** ** _many, many, many,_** **more years. On another note, this isn't a 'Humanity crushes all' fic because even with Vast amounts of technological superiority, Humanity simply doesn't have enough ships or people to take the entire Turians out. And remember, the Reapers** ** _are_** **coming! Though I won't focus on them as much as other fics because I have my own original Villain the galaxy has to worry about.**

 **Edit: (12/30/2015) fixed some grammar issues that had thrown off some people in the reviews. Also added a few more things that explained on stuff, example: Why they destroyed all FTL knowledge and data.**

 **Edit: (11/11/16) Fixed many, many things**


	2. Prolouge: First contact

**Hey everyone and welcome back to Xcom: Human incursion! The response to this story has been truly amazing and it gets me pumped just to write the chapter. Now the real action starts with the prologue of the story! First contact war? Check. Popcorn? Check. Humans? Check. Garrus? Wait what? Anyway, just as a note, I haven't played Mass Effect two or three. I've only played the first one and that was awhile ago, though I do remember the basics of the game. Again, please forgive me if I mess something up. I don't own anything anyone would give a second glance at so please, don't sue me. I beg you, don't sue me.**

 _ **Here in Xcom, we shoot first and dissect later. Hey, is this recording…?**_

 _ **-Officer Bradford of the Xcom project**_

 **NOTE: Before you begin reading this, the first few chapters are a little cringey. The later chapters however do get better so please don't get turned off by these first few. I still have not been able to rewrite any of the first ones as my life is fairly hectic. Thanks. *First few chapters under rewrite***

 **Act I: First Contact**

 **2109 July 10th 4:36 PM Earth Time**

 _ **SSV Imperial**_ **in Orbit of Recently colonized Human world, Eden Prime, Alliance Species space**

Admiral of the 65th taskforce, Broadley Kyle sighed and rubbed his forehead. He looked back down at the documents he was reading on his datapad. The beeping of the datapad getting a priority message had surprised him and had made him knock his cup of coffee on the steel floor of the dreadnought _SAV Imperial._ He had quickly let out a curse before glaring at his datapad, ignoring the coffee on the floor. He had quickly read it over and sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"God damned relay…" Broadley said before getting up from his chair and walking down to the bridge where two officers stood outside the doors. Instantly, the two guards had stood to attention. Broadley glanced at the two soldiers.

"At ease." They instantly relaxed and looked at Broadley. Broadley nodded at them before entering the room, pushing the doors aside. Broadley looked around the bridge and the operatives that worked here.

The operatives and their respective stations were arranged in columns to the end of the bridge. Bradley's naturally enhanced Psionic abilities had sensed that all the crew was linked to their Neural commands, allowing the Crew to share information among themselves within seconds and activate or deactivate the dormant drones in the bays while giving the drones orders.

Directly in front of him was a Vid screen. The Vid screen showed the vast expanses of space and Eden Prime, the Species Alliances' newest colony world.

"Afternoon Broadley." The ship's AI, Nix greeted him in a Scottish accent. A moment later, an 'AI avatar' appeared standing beside Broadley, the image of an old Scottish warrior wielding an axe, slung on the avatar's back, straight from the textbooks on Earth. The AI avatar wavered slightly as Nix turned to Broadley and nodded in respect. It was a private joke in between the two of them.

"Afternoon Nix, how's the _Imperial_ looking?"

"All is fine Admiral Broadley, all systems are at 100% and the crew is from my observations, content." Broadley nodded, turning to the Avatar.

"Good, we are assigned to investigate a nearby dormant relay that has been acting up lately. Some eggheads from Terra Nova are itching to see what's up. Our top priority is to keep them safe. Though you probably already knew that judging how the security camera in my office was aimed at my datapad so intently." The Avatar wavered slightly again as Nix fixed a sheepish grin to the avatar.

"Yeah, I hope you don't mind me spying on you, it's awfully boring around here. I heard on the Neural link that some guys are playing _pong_ via Link. Sadly, it's only a two-person game." Broadley snorted.

" _Pong?_ I'll have to ask the crew to allow me to join next time." Broadley joked, allowing himself a small joke with the AI. Nix's avatar tilted his head.

"But it's against regulations for Admirals to join Neural Link games." Broadley shook his head and sighed, having forgotten that AIs had _almost_ no sense of humor. The _almost_ being that they for some reason loved to tell their own jokes but were blank to non-AI's jokes.

"Anyway, have the operatives plot a Hyperspace jump to the relay. The Eggheads will be here in a few minutes via Hyperspace jump. We'll escort them there." After a few moments of silence save for the Dreadnought's whirring of engines, Nix answered.

"Done. I'll notify you when the scientists arrive." Broadley nodded.

"Thanks again Nix." Nix nodded and the avatar smirked. "my pleasure, oh wise leader." Before Broadley had time to retort, the avatar vanished. Broadley then took one last glance around the bridge, before turning on his heel and walking back towards his office.

 **2109 July 10th 4:39 PM Earth time**

 _ **SSV Imperial**_ **Approaching Eden Mass Relay, Alliance Species space**

Several other frigates and the one Dreadnought, the _SAV Imperial_ accompanied the small science ships as they made their way to the Eden relay. Broadley sat in his office, linked to the Neural Command set beside his desk, allowing him to see the vid screen inside the bridge, even though he himself wasn't there.

All crew members reported good whilst the small fleet of ships advanced to the relay. Soon however, the computers had begun to pick up some strange readings, mostly radio communication and the like, through the relay, even as it was dormant. These were distinct from the background radiation from space and easily identifiable. The radio transmissions were mostly gibberish however. Perhaps some pirates the navy would have to deal with later.

According to the documents, the science team was to switch on the relay and investigate the strange readings. If they found nothing, they could request to demolish the relay. Within a few days, construction teams would mobilize and the Mass Relay would be dismantled the metal going into ships, structures, etc. The process would take several years if not decades of course.

"Science teams, you have a go, good luck with the relay."

" _Thank you Admiral Broadley, though I have no doubt, my team will get the job done."_ The supervisor of the science team replied. As the science ships made their way to the relay the combat ships, five in total, four standard Alliance frigates and one standard Alliance Dreadnought positioned themselves in a defensive stance around the relay.

 **2109 July 10th 4:51 PM Earth Time**

 _ **Indomitable**_ **approaching Relay 314, Turian Space**

Septus Paplianus, admiral of the _Indomitable_ was not having a good day. Septus had been forsaken to garrison his new Dreadnought on some backwater Turian planet in the middle of nowhere. In the briefings, there had been word of some new pirates and the mass relay 314 acting up. The Hierarchy had started to patrol this way, even if there was nobody here, in Septus' opinion.

Septus scowled thinking about it. He was patrolling the border with merely ten frigates. He had a general distaste to frigates; he hadn't ever seen the need for any. Deploy a couple of dreadnoughts with several fighters and your enemies (which had been only a few pirate ships for Septus) were good as dead. Septus wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. Spirit's knew how he attained such a high position as an admiral.

Septus was consulting with fighter pilot when the ship comms flared to life.

" _Admiral to the bridge, admiral to the bridge."_ Septus scowled again as he marched down to the bridge, ignoring the polit. _'This better be important.'_ Septus thought as he entered the bridge.

"Sir, our sensors are picking up some activity near the relay." An officer whom Septus had never bothered to learn the name of said.

"What do you mean?" Septus inquired, suddenly intrigued. This was something to do at least.

"We're picking up several signatures near relay 314. It seems that someone is activating the relay sir." Septus snorted.

"Pirates?" Septus grunted, moving to the officer. "We don't know sir. They don't carry any recognized signia." The officer told him.

"In any case, they broke Citadel Law. Pirates or otherwise." Septus said. "Should we hail them?" The officer asked. Septus shook his hand, waving his hand aside. "No. I'm no mood to listen to some Batarian or Terminus system pirates make up excuses. Prepare weapons and shields." He said. "Bring us into the relay and be prepared to engage any hostiles." Septus said.

 **2109 July 10th 4:53 PM Earth Time**

 _ **SAV Imperial**_ **protecting scientists observing Eden relay in Alliance Species Space**

"Sir, picking up multiple contacts approaching the science team from the relay." Broadley tuned into what Nix was saying. "Alliance?" Broadley inquired, turning to the Vid screen.

"No sir, they're not marked as any Alliance ships in my data banks. They also don't appear to have any Pirate signatures. In other words, I don't know who they are." Broadley made the equivalent of a puzzled expression on the Neural Command.

"Pirates perhaps?" Broadley asked. Nix sighed. "Either that or first contact. Personally sir, I'm hoping it's the first." Nix said. Broadley nodded, deep in thought. "Judging by their trajectory and speed, we won't make contact for another hour."

 **2109 July 10th 4:53 Earth Time**

 _ **Indomitable**_ **Approaching unknown contacts near relay 314, Uncharted Space**

Septus watched as his small fleet closed in on the unknowns which had broken Citadel Law. "We'll be in weapons range in a moment sir." An officer told Septus who nodded, mandibles flexing. "Bring us in. I don't want them to get shots off on us." He said.

Another five minutes passed. "We're in weapons range now sir." The Officer reported. Septus nodded. "Fire the main guns, port side." He ordered.

"Yes sir, firing main guns…now." Several Mass Effect slugs traveled through the space between the ships with ease, hurtling through millions of miles of cold empty space. But only a few hit the Alliance ships by the relay, not carrying defenses of any kind.

The rest of the slugs however that had went to the Ships protecting the ships by the relay had only caused light damage to the hulls of the ships. Septus grinned as the slugs connected, noticing the aliens didn't have any visible shields of any kind and the smaller ships by the relay were all out destroyed.

Septus scowled however when he noticed that the slugs had done minimal damage to a few ships. Whatever these new aliens made their ships out of was tough, but not unbreakable. But then the aliens retaliated and Septus's hope for winning the battle fell.

 **2109 July 10th 4:57 PM Earth Time**

 _ **SAV Imperial**_ **moving too engage hostile unknown ships, In Species Alliance space**

Kyle Broadley watched in shock as most of the science vessels were destroyed before his eyes. "Science team, do you copy?" Broadley hurriedly asked over the fleet comms. No response. Nix was also seemingly in shock, (Part of his emotion program) the aliens had just destroyed civilian ships, unprovoked nonetheless! Kyle Broadley quickly sniffed out his emotions, as they tried to dictate what to do.

"All ships!" Broadley said firmly over the comms.

"Protect the remaining science team and get them enough time to hyperspace out of here! All combat able ships are to fire at the enemy frigates and dreadnought! Take them down and show them that the Alliance navy _is not_ to be messed with!" Various officers replied a 'yes sir' over the comms and the _Imperial_ shuddered as the main Laser cannon fired, slicing into an alien ship, causing various secondary explosions and destroying the ship.

Several Alliance ships joined in, sending plasma and laser shots to the enemy. Broadley frowned however as he noticed the plasma being blocked by what looked like a shield. However, Broadley was satisfied as the lasers went perfectly through the shields, cutting through the hostile ships.

 **2109 July 10th 5:00 PM Earth Time**

 _ **Indomitable**_ **firing at provoked targets in Uncharted Space**

Septus blinked in surprise. The alien ships had just _annihilated_ several of his frigates with one or two hits, completely by passing through their shields using _energy weapons_ for spirits sake! Septus watched as another Frigate was destroyed by Alien lasers. The alien's plasma weapons however only hit the Turian ship's shields, while draining them significantly. Septus grinned though when what looked like an Alien frigate collapsing under the pressure of multiple Mass Effect slugs. That's when Septus got an idea.

"All remaining Hierarchy ships lock and fire on my command at the furthest right frigate, we need to pick off these ships using concentrated fire." The patrol fleet, or what was left of it, aimed their Mass Effect cannons at the furthest right frigate, all the while, multiple Hierarchy frigates fell to Alien lasers and plasma fire radiation seeping through the ships. After a moment, the Mass Effect cannons were in the position to fire.

"All ships fire!" Septus's own ship shuddered and groaned slightly as the Mass Effect was launched through space. Under the combined pressure of multiple slugs hitting at the same time, the Alliance Frigate collapsed and secondary explosions went off, causing a complete annihilation of the ship.

 **2109 July 10th 5:10 PM Earth Time**

 _ **SAV Imperial**_ **hiring at hostile contacts in Alliance Species Space**

"That's the last science vessel!" Nix hurriedly said over the ship comms. The _SAV Imperial_ , while currently fine, was next in line in the Alien's genocide as all other Alliance ships had either pulled out or were simply _destroyed_ under the alien's concentrated fire. There were however only a few of the alien's frigate and single dreadnought.

"I want us Hyper spaced out of here and at Eden Prime yesterday!" Broadley shouted, watching as the alien's guns rotated towards them.. Nix found that going back in time to yesterday would be theoretically impossible but threw this piece of confused knowledge to the back of his consciousness as he powered the Hyper Space engines in an attempt to pull out of the battle.

"How long will it take for us to Hyper Space us out of here?!" Broadley asked in a rush. "A minute sir-."

"A minute is not good enough, we'll all be dead by then, how long will it take for us to reroute all power to the Hyper Space engines?" "It will shorten it down by thirty seconds-."

"DO IT!" Broadley shouted. The Mass Effect cannons fired, screaming silently towards them.

"5 seconds until Hyper Space jump." The first Mass Effect slug connected with the ship, causing minimal damage along the port side.

"Stand by, Hyper Space jump commencing." Broadley sighed with relief as his ship entered Hyper Space, on its way to Eden Prime. Broadley rubbed his forehead.

"God damnit, a first contact gone wrong…" Broadley sighed.

"The Alliance will want a full report, I might as well get started on one now… In the meantime, I want you to evualte the damage done to the ship by that slug." He told Nix.

 **2109 July 10th 5:12 PM Earth Time**

 _ **Indomitable**_ **by relay 314, Turian Uncharted Space**

Septus grinned as the final Alliance ship left the battle in some sort of FTL, but Septus didn't care. They- _He_ had won the battle against someone, new species or not! Oh how happy his superiors would be!

 **It is to be noted that Septus Paplianus was relieved of duty with the following day.**

 **A/N: This took a LONG time to write and I'm so glad I finally finished this chapter. As for some of you questions, Let me answer some.**

 _Lone Guardian-_ First of all, thank you. Now as to why the countries would destroy the Zudjari tech. Their smart and am not going to use technology they one, have next to no idea how it works and two, the US destroyed Zudjari technology in Bureau for the same reason so I thought I should go with that. The Terra Novan colonists lost the location to Earth because 1. That was not their mindset at the time they made landfall and later on, until after the war. And 2. After a while of FTL traveling from planet to planet in search of a place Humanity could live, Earth got lost in the data and had to be unscrambled.

 _Unknown-_ Thanks bro.

 _Coloured walker-_ Thank you for acknowledging this is an AU. Zudjari aren't psionic in this because I wanted some diversity in terms of Psionic and Biotics

 _Guest-_ Thank you!

 _Korpa-_ With collaboration of several world super powers, they were able to properly research stuff. South America did not fight in the Zudjari war at all since Zudjari wormholes didn't open there. As for the second part of your review, I couldn't really make that out, sorry.

 _Critizar-_ Noted. As for the agreement for China backing out, not everyone agreed to building and launching nuclear arms yet that still went through. As for the third part of your response, thank you and noted.

 _Timedraven-_ The answer you seek is above you… XD

 _Guest-_ Noted.

 _Omacoo1-_ Thanks man, as for the Turians, I guess you have your answer now XD

 _Dragon Order-_ Thank you, that helps a lot and it has been changed accordingly.

 **As for the possibility of the Codex, if people like this, I will do a Codex, if not, forget about it.**

 **Edit: (12/30/15) I fixed some more grammar issues that seriously needed to be fixed. Also changed it so the Indomitable was in Uncharted Space, not Turian Space and Alliance space at once.**

 **Edit (6/2/17) Complete rewrite. Now it's not complete shit.**


	3. Chapter 1: To War We March

**Hey everyone and welcome back to Xcom: Human Incursion! I've had a bit of writer's block on this about what to do… but I think I've mostly got it all down so… yeah. Also as a side note, I am doing Codex entries so yay! There will not be entire chapters dedicated to the Codex cause' that's just plain annoying. Anyway, I guess I'll leave out the POV thing.**

 _ **If you want something done and can't do it, call in an Air Strike.**_

 _ **-Anonymous Alliance Infantry Soldier**_

 **2109 July 11th 12:01 AM Earth Time**

 **Unknown Location, Unknown planet, Species Alliance Space**

The room was deathly silent as the Alliance Species Representatives gathered and said a brief greeting before sitting down in their respective chairs. Planetary states were often not involved in these sorts of conflicts but in this case, their votes were vital. All planetary state votes had been gathered and would be revealed this morning by Councilor Zero, the Human representative.

Besides Councilor Zero, were seated several other individuals, all of non-Human origin. Councilor Zero would have been pleased with the attendance of the other species if not for the dire circumstances. Next to him in the shade so no one should see their faces were the Volm Representative and the Zudjari representative. A little further down the black table was the Sectoid representative, Ethereal, Muton, Cyberdisk AI, etc. After all the representatives were seated, Councilor Zero began.

"Good day to all present, we have come together today to decide a choice that will affect the Alliance and possibly the whole _galaxy_. Recently, several science vessels with Alliance escorts were dispatched from Terra Nova and the nearby colony, Eden Prime to investigate some strange readings coming from the local Relay in the Eden Prime system. At exactly 4:53 PM Earth time, first contact with a new species was made. They weren't friendly and when the Alliance vessels hailed them, the aliens opened fire, destroying most of the vessels except for the Dreadnought, _SAV Imperial_. We have reason to believe that the aliens will then proceed and attempt to take the Alliance colony, Eden Prime." The room was once again silent.

"What were the results of the planetary poll? Do we attempt to go to war with this new foreign power or do we attempt peace?" The Ethereal representative asked, using a psionic connection, the only way now that Ethereal could talk. According to Ethereal after the Great Silence, the only way Ethereals could talk was through psionic connections.

The Muton representative huffed and made a motion similar to crossing one's arms.

"The Muton tribes have already decided! The Mutons say we go to war!" Councilor zero glanced over at the Muton though no one could tell.

"Councilor nine, please, settle down." He said in a calm voice. The Muton huffed and calmed down, looking away, though it was evident by his body language he was not sorry. Ever since a terrorist group known as Cerberus had attempted to bug the former meeting place several years ago, the representatives had decided to call each other by their councilor numbers.

"We acknowledge that the Mutons want war," Councilor Zero started, choosing his words carefully. "But the Mutons can't talk for every Species Alliance member." Councilor Zero finished. The Muton representative said nothing and just glared at Councilor Zero's shadowy form.

"But to the point, the Poll results Councilor." The Zudjari councilor said, turning his head to look at the Human.

"Yes, that," The Councilor Zero started, noiselessly clearing his throat.

"Out of the two hundred and thirty four worlds the Species Alliance has on 2109 July 10 12:01AM Earth Time, all have voted. Here are the following results; one hundred fifty worlds have voted for war. Eighty four have voted against war. It should be noted that most votes came from heavily Human populated planets." The room was silent for a moment again.

"The majority of the Species Alliance wishes to go to war then." The Volm councilor stated, masking his emotion.

"We will now take a vote on the matter, per standard." Councilor Zero stated, bringing up the voting screen. Councilors pushed buttons on the table next to them, voting on the matter. After a few moments, the voting screen started displaying the results of the vote.

"The Vote is in favor of war." The Zudjari representative stated, looking at the assortment of representatives. The Muton representative looked happy in an odd way. The AI representative's avatar had a face of stone; of course the three most important figures, Volm, Zudjari and Human representatives remained in the dark. It was decided, the Alliance would once again march to war.

"As standard, the Xcom project will be reactivated as well. May whatever Gods these Aliens pray to have mercy on their souls." Councilor Zero stated a hint of triumph in his voice.

 **2109 July 11th 10:13 AM Earth Time**

 _ **Spirits' Dance**_ **Approaching Relay 314, Turian Hierarchy space**

Ganus Dardus looked out from his ship, _Spirits' Dance_. The ship was a Turian Dreadnought, able to pack a punch and take a punch. Ganus looked grim. Septus was an idiot, picking a fight with a new race that had no idea what Citadel law was. Although when the Turians start a fight, they finish it. Especially when a new race had laser weapons and spirits knows what else, they had to neutralize this new threat right away. For both the Turians and the galactic community, it could possibly become another Ranchi war if this went unchecked.

Ganus could understand that the new Xeons might be a little more than upset. All the Turians revealed to the public was that the movement of troops was necessary due to a new pirate gang in the area, one more powerful than the others by far. All though the Council races were a little more than suspicious, they bought it and didn't exactly push the subject. Ganus was in charge of the first and second fleet and would be leading the charge against this threat with several dreadnoughts, cruisers and frigates. In Ganus's opinion, it was a huge overkill, this race more than likely have anything close to the size of a dreadnought since they had never encountered this species before. In his mind, the Council had been around for thousands of years. If there was a technologically advanced race this way they would have already found them.

"Sir, we are coming up on the relay now." A Turian officer informed Ganus. "Very well, get the ships in position, prepare for immediate resistance on the other side and heat up weapons."

"It shall be done." The Turian officer said, walking off the deck. Soon, they would be at the primitives' home world and it would be a slaughter. Ganus felt bad for them truly.

 **2109 July 11th 10:13 AM Earth Time**

 _ **SAV Imperial**_ **In Orbit of Species Alliance Planet, Eden Prime**

"All ships in defensive positions Admiral." Came the monotone voice of Nix. For once, the AI had almost been completely silent and hadn't said a word through the whole process of positioning the ships.

"Thank you Nix." The Admiral spoke through the Neural Command. The militia of seven Cruisers, two dreadnoughts and twelve frigates and several hundred fighters in their respective ship bays' had formed a defensive perimeter around the relay and planet. The ships had been pulled from nearby systems, coming to the defense of Eden Prime. After a little while later, Nix spoke.

"Admiral Broadley, My sensors are detecting signatures exiting Mass Relay." Nix stated calmly. Admiral Kyle Broadley sucked in his breath.

"Happy Independence day." Nix seemed confused at this statement. "Sir, Judging from my calendar, It is in fact not the American Independence Day," Broadley sighed and rolled his eyes.

"I take it you haven't seen the movie Independence Day." There was a short pause before Nix said anything.

"No, I haven't sir. Would you like me too?" There was an awkward pause before anyone said anything, just looking at their sensors as the comparably slower alien ships advanced on them. "Not… now." Broadley said. "Just focus on the aliens."

"Admiral Kyle Broadley, may I suggest attempting to contact these Alien ships; we should try to avoid impending bloodshed." Admiral Broadley nodding, agreeing with what Nix had suggested.

"Of course, why didn't I think about that?"

"Perhaps because Humans tend to forget things as such while we AIs have extra memory and faster thinking minds." There was a pause at that statement which Broadley looked up at the camera currently surveying him.

"At least we're alive."

"According to law, we are alive as much as you are."

"We have living, breathing bodies."

"…so?" Broadley sighed.

"Just open comms to all ships, get them to power down their weapons, we'll try to get them to talk." "And if they are hostile still?" Broadley paused.

"We'll proceed as planned." "Yes sir." Nix said, disengaging from the conversation.

 **2109 July 11th 10:16 AM Earth Time**

 _ **Spirits' Dance**_ **Approaching Species Alliance world, Eden Prime, Species Alliance Space**

"We are now approaching the alien's supposed Home world sir. Sensors will be in range of the planet within five minutes." An officer said, coming up to Ganus. Ganus glanced and nodded at the officer.

"Very well then, are all ships in formation? Is everyone prepared?" Ganus asked, turning his attention back to the enemy fleet. It looked almost senic in a way.

"Yes sir, everyone is ready and the last of the ships are moving into position now. Sir, permission to speak freely?" Ganus once again, glanced at his officer.

"Permission granted, what is on your mind?" The officer nodded hesitantly.

"To be honest sir, I don't think we should be punching them this hard and this fast, pushing them down before they can even get on their feet in the first place." This caught Ganus' interest.

"Elaborate officer." The officer nodded.

"These are more than likely primitives, energy weapons aside. They must only be reaching for the stars, too primitive to really fight back at all. I think we should try and open communications before we fire." The Officer said, gesturing with his hands. Ganus nodded, it was a sound plan, avoid bloodshed if at all possible.

"That is an… interesting idea officer, and I too personally approve of it as well." Ganus paused for a moment.

"We will put this plan into action; open comms to all ships and notify them power down their weapons but to keep their shields up."

"Yes sir." The Turian officer said before walking off. In the pit of his stomach though, Ganus had a creeping feeling that everything would unravel sooner than later. And with himself in the crosshairs.

 **2109 July 11th 10:20 AM Earth Time**

 _ **SAV Imperial**_ **Attempting contact hostiles and remaining in defensive position in orbit of Species Alliance planet, Eden Prime**

"Hostiles are slowing down and heat signatures show that their weapons seem to have cooled down." Nix reported. Broadley was mildly surprised and it showed on his face. But only for a second, yet it was a recognizable reaction all the same.

"That is… peculiar. Unless they have some sort of sniper ship, they may in fact be trying to attempt a peaceful second contact."

"Which is also in our ideals, is it not?" Nix stated, sounding thoughtful. "It is. Attempt to contact the lead ship-." Broadley was interrupted by Nix who didn't try to hide the panic in his synthesized voice.

"Sir! The _SAV Union_ is heating up weapons and turning to fire at the approaching alien ships!" Nix said in a rush, panic evident. Bradley's eyes widened and he cursed.

"Open comms to the _SAV Union_ immediately!" Broadley said, gripping the command chair and scowling.

"Captain Binne, Christophe _what in god's name do you think you're doing?!"_ Broadley nearly shouted, trying to contain his anger.

"They are attempting a peaceful contact! Power down your ship's guns _now, that is an order!"_ Broadley said, putting force into his words. The face of Christophe Binne of the _SAV Union_ popped inside his mind via Neural Command. Christophe Binne had been one of Broadley' s close friends during the Espheni wars but had not seen the promotions Broadley had due to Binne's hate of aliens. Christophe Binne stood up straighter as he looked down upon Broadley with a sneer.

"You never did understand. The Human race has to walk down the path to galactic domination _alone._ "

"Are you insane Christophe, their friendly-!"

"FOR NOW. For now, but that always changes dear friend. I'm only doing what is right… think of me as a crusader. As for my actions? My crew has been dealt with, with any disagreeing… discharged." He said with venom.

"This goes beyond your own personal agenda Christophe, you're killing a _peaceful_ chance of friendship here! Think of all the things we could benefit from each other!"

"That's not how we see it. Not how _Cerberus_ sees it."

"You piece of shit-you're working with Cerberus. Their terrorists!" Broadley yelled. Christophe chuckled darkly.

"No, their Mankind's saviors." And with that, the comm closed, leaving a very pissed Kyle Broadley in its wake.

"The _SAV Union_ has opened fire; lasers have penetrated the Alien's shields. Alien frigate annihilated." _There goes that…_ Broadley Kyle thought darkly.

"Hold onto your seats boys and girls, things about to get bumpy…" Broadley said, preparing for quick retaliation.

 **A war had just begun…**

 **A/N: Merry Christmas everyone! (Well at least for me, at the time I post this,** _ **my**_ **Christmas begins today as I'm not a Native American speaker :p) For the Codex's, I'll be starting them next chapter! Yay! Now... reviews… damn. A lot of things I can't reveal because it has something to do with plot or will be in the storyline (Or Codex). So here we go…**

 _Enji-Benjy-_ …

1\. As I said before, they destroyed them because in this timeline, they're smarter than _us_ and don't fumble with things they have _no clue_ how works. They didn't destroy Ethereal Tech. Because they had a better understanding at that time. They had a better understanding at the time because they had access to more equipment, technologies ect. Then they did in the 20th century.

2\. The North American Council (USA) destroyed any evidence of the ship ever leaving after they left (Which would have been released in a Codex). I also explained this in my edit, last chapter. The enemies mentioned were other Human factions who they feared would use the technology against their nation.

3\. it's not that hard to forget actually, plus, they destroyed all the data for fear of it ever landing in hostile hands. (To be revealed in Codex anyway…) They feared another alien invasion, like on Earth. Technically, it was plausible at the time. (Fun fact: I almost had the Espheni war happen to Terra Nova, not Earth)

4\. It makes more sense for the Relay to lead to Eden Prime since the Species Alliance has not yet colonized Shanxi due to them colonizing all of the planet's in between Terra Nova and Earth.

5\. Part of the plot and would release spoilers

6\. You'll find out soon enough:p

7\. I fixed that in my previous edit.

8\. Also fixed that so it made more sense

9\. This was probably the best question you had. They don't have shields because AU plus it'll be in Codex so wait.

10\. _All-in-all, this seems to have a lot of holes and isn't that well written either._ ... Says the one with no stories. If you have stories on another site, I apologize for saying that.

 _FranticHamster-_ Thanks and noted.

 _Wtf-_ _"at 1000%"_

 _Didn't read after that._

 _Stories potential died with that sentence._ First of all, that was pretty rude. Second, I fixed that so it said 100%

 _Wtf-_ Actually, a lot of it makes sense :/ Just going to say this outright, there was a huge typo I made, sorry guys. :/ Which I just fixed in my last edit.

1\. Typo, it was supposed to be 10,000 guys on board not 1,000 and there was to be 50,000 after a while, not 500,000. Sorry that was my mistake…

2\. as for the AI? Hey, we're smart guys! :p

3\. _by the way... I'm God. Suck my godly dick, because that's what god's ask puny mortals to do cause reasons._ That hurt my feelings…

4\. A Global war on a colony in a short time is completely plausible.

5\. Where did it ever say that they colonized the entire planet? :/

6\. I edited it to better explain why they forgot the location. And an Earth with resources? Completely realistic.

7\. Why would they assume the Volm wouldn't help? That's pretty obvious actually; basically no other Alien entity has ever approached them peacefully so that's my reasoning.

8 Independence movements would grip the Synthetic public and the public would be outraged about not being another separate power.

9\. Not a flame? Tell that to the review you made later.

 _Phantomwa1ker-_ THANK YOU for explaining this in the reviews!

 _Phantomwalker-_ Thanks :p

 _SpecH82-_ lol,yup. XD Thanks about the timeline, I put a lot of work into it! As for the Protoss, noted! :p As for other species… I guess we'll have to wait and see!

 _Timedraven117-_ I did a pretty good amount of research and yeah, have to do with plot so I can't tell you. :p

 _Adjuster-_ THANK YOU.

 _Andrewjameswilliams-_ Lol, yup. :p

 _RandomReader7- Timeline, first contact war and stupid Turians to get the ball rolling. Whelp, this story couldn't be any cliché and boring than the rest that came before it, regardless of the many additions (beyond earth) you add._

"Sarcasm. Gee thanks. And please, can everyone please not mention the Beyond Earth thing anymore? It was basically used to birth the Synthetics and their AIs, as well as the Planetary Union. Plus I thought it was a pretty cool thing to add :p

 _Guest-_ Yeah… no. If I remove all the advantages the Turians have, then it'll just be a stomp fic so by the Species Alliance.

 _Galardy-_ Thanks! As for the Terra Nova thing, I've just confronted that issue above so yup! Though you did put it in kinder words so thanks !

 _Echosentient-_ Codex only chapters? Nope, I never planned to do that so yup!

 _A Critic-_ Alright…

 _From the very, very first line you lost my interest. A timeline is almost the single worst way to start a fic. They are dry by nature and I have zero interest in reading about factions I am not invested in. Writing a timeline for you as an author would make sense, but a reader has no reason to go along with it. Reveal your universe as the story goes on._ At this point I was pretty pissed at this review. First, that's how I chose to present my story and how I personally prefer it. And second, you don't have to read this; you're not being forced to. Don't like it? Leave.

 _You also started with the first contact war. Now you've just revealed it's a cookie cutter fic. Nothing has fundamentally changed! The political situation with the Council is marginally different, but the plot is too similar to canon. FCW-Eden Prime -Citadel- (Therum, Noveria, Feros) -Virmire-Ilos.. Boring._

This is completely different and judging by the first and second chapter is pretty stupid which the first chapter was the timeline. Saying the snippets were too short is probably the only logical thing you said in this whole review.

 _As for multi-crossovers, I don't exactly recommend it. Merging two universes is hard, any more than that, it becomes a hassle to deal with and doesn't necessarily add to the story_

Just… no. I like how it is and I'm sure other people would agree with me. It adds flavor and uniqueness to the story, setting it apart from the rest.

 _If you want an example of a fic done right. Here is an X-Com/ME-crossover. s/10550829/1/Psi-Effect_

I don't need to hear this, in fact, I've already read that story and am still reading it. While it's good and I applause the author, I don't want to steal the idea of the story from Cap'n Chryssalid.

 _5 Coloured Walker-_ Dealt with. Stupid Turian plot _is_ stupid Turian plot. XD

 _Six Samurai of dragon order-_ yup. XD Also noted, thanks for catching that!

 _Lone Guardian-_ Dealt with all of those questions and for the ship? It's still there, operational. It's only used in emergency situations however.

 **Merry Christmas everyone! R &R as always! This story lives off of your guy's awesomeness! Merry Christmas to all and to all, a good night!**

 **Edit: (12/30/2015) to say the least, I fixed a lot of things in this chapter, notably how aggressive I was answering the reviews. I'm going through a lot of things at the moment and I wasn't in the best of moods while I did review answering that day. Drewman out.**


	4. Chapter 2: Space battles

**Hey everyone and welcome back to Xcom: Incursion! Anyway, I got a couple of good things for Christmas… such as Mass Effect 2 & 3! YES. Now I can finally learn more about the Mass Effect universe and make fewer mistakes! Though I'll have to wait for my own laptop because the family computer is filled and has no more memory space but anyway, time for the second chapter AND A SPACE BATTLE! (Super hard to friggin' write)**

" _ **While physics and mathematics may tell us how the universe began, they are not much use in predicting human behavior because there are far too many equations to solve. I'm no better than anyone else at understanding what makes people tick, particularly women."**_

 _ **-Stephen Hawking**_

 **2109 July 11th 10:20 AM Earth Time**

 _ **Spirits' Dance**_ **Approaching Species Alliance world, Eden Prime, Species Alliance Space**

"Sir, we are detecting ships by the planet." An officer exclaimed, motioning for Ganus to come over to his screen. Ganus walked over, looking over the officer's shoulder. Ganus' mandibles tightened a little as he looked at the screen, they had expected little resistance, instead what they saw was a fully prepared, defensively positioned militia comparable to a standard Turian militia force.

The ships themselves demanded a commanding presence, sleek and sharp looking. There were what looked like guns on the crafts, they were small compared to standard Turian guns but showed their technological superiority with streaks of green and red visibly coursing through the guns like veins. Alien writing was visible on the ships, although blurred from the distance space presented.

All the ships carried a strange insignia on their sides, a black backdrop with three white stars in front of an alien planet.

"By the spirits, they were ready for us." The officer whispered. Ganus remembered that the officer was rather new compared to the others.

"They're still nothing a Turian fleet can't handle however." Ganus said trying to reassure the officer and himself. What could a militia, even an unknown alien one, do to a Turian fleet?

"Sir, we're picking up a signal coming from one of the Alien ships." The comms officer called to Ganus. Ganus glanced over at the comms officer and walked over to him.

"Audio or visual?" Ganus inquired.

"Audio sir-."

"Sir, we're getting energy spikes from one of the Alien ships and their weapons are turning around to face the _Spirit's Rejoice_!" The sensor officer called out to Ganus

" _What?!_ " Ganus hissed, turning to his sensors' officer.

"Sir! Alien weapons have been fired; the _Spirits' Rejoice_ has been completely destroyed! Orders sir?" Ganus sucked in a breath, if these Aliens wanted a fight, they were sure to get one.

"Open comms to all ships!"

"Done." His comms officer stated, after a second.

"I want all ships to open fire on the vessel that destroyed the _Spirits' Rejoice_! And after that spirits' damned ship is destroyed, fire at will at all enemy vessels immediately."

 **2109 July 11th 10:25 Earth Time**

 _ **SAV Imperial**_ **standing off with aggravated unknowns, Species Alliance world Eden Prime, Species Alliance Space**

"Sir! ETs are opening fire at the _SAV Union_! The _SAV Union_ is now heating up weapons again!" Nix said in a rush. Broadley couldn't wrap his head around this situation. One of his dear friends had just started an unprovoked war. A war he would now have to fight. And even more, he was working with a terrorist organization! Broadley simply didn't know what to do. He hadn't been trained in this sort of situation. _We're the bad guys?_ Broadley thought, finally snapping out of it.

"Direct fire to the _SAV Union_ ; blow it to the hell and back."

"Sir?" Nix inquired, slightly taken back by this.

"Blow it up I said, if we're lucky, the ETs won't fire on our other ships." "Yes sir." Nix said, relaying the command down the line. After a moment;

"The _SAV Union_ has been destroyed." Broadley winced inwardly.

"And the ET ships?" "Still heating weapons and turning to us sir. What are your orders?" Nix said. Broadley cursed.

"Open comms to all Alliance ships." Broadley said. After a moment, Nix gave the all go.

"All Alliance ships are to fire at will at hostile ships, release all capable fighters and military drones to engage with hostile ships. All AIs are to engage in cybernetic warfare with the enemy, take and learn as much as you can about our enemy and mess up their communications. All military personnel are to report to their battle stations." This was it. This was war with another species. The Alliance hadn't been at war in almost fifty years. Broadley sucked in a breath as his fighters began to fly out from the hangers as the enemy released fighters of their own.

From looking at his standpoint in the neural interface, Broadley could gather that there were almost twice as many enemy fighters then there were Alliance. But comparing enemy fire to their own as the fighters collided in a cloud of fury, the alliance clearly still held the advantage in a technological aspect.

 **2109 July 11th 10:30 AM Earth Time**

 _ **Destiny's Grace**_ **engaging with enemy fighters, above Species Alliance world, Eden prime, Species Alliance space**

Jupiter grimaced as another mass effect slug flew past her fighter, close enough to touch. Everywhere around her, fighters of many species clashed, fighting for their own life as they fired at the general direction of the enemy, the enemy fighters were simply faster than the species Alliance fighters to lock on but held one fatal flaw: their guns were like peashooters compared to Alliance lasers and plasma. One shot were all it took for those fighters, which couldn't be said for the Alliance.

Jupiter avoided another slug and twirled her fighter in space, bringing it behind the fighter how had tried to shoot her, pressing the fire button for the lasers which had proven their effectiveness against the alien's fighters, bypassing their shields which the plasma didn't. The fighter attempted to dodge the fast approaching lasers-the bastard wasn't quick enough however as the lasers had incredible speed, reaching their targets a hell a lot faster than plasma, burning a clean hole through the fighter's armor and causing several secondary explosions. Within moments of contact with the laser, the fighter was all but destroyed, debris floating in space. "Boom." She whispered, turning her attention to the other alien fighters.

To her left, she noticed an Alliance fighter, badly damaged and taking incredible amounts of fire from multiple sources kamikaze into an alien fighter, both exploding in a brilliant display of destruction and willingness to die for the Alliance.

Jupiter would have thought it was beautiful had another Alliance soul hadn't just died from these damned aliens and she wasn't engaged in a bloody fighter vs fighter showdown. Jupiter banked her fighter hard to the left as one of those slugs neared her fighter eight hundred miles an hour She was too slow however to avoid being hit by the slug, as it hit her fighter's starboard side, causing red lights to dance around her eyes.

"Shit!" Jupiter cursed, trying desperately to keep control of her fighter from falling apart as the enemy fighter approached her position. Her fighter twirled in a circle for a moment from the impact of the slug before Jupiter regained control of the fighter, narrowly dodging another slug.

"Bastard." Jupiter muttered, making her fighter do a dive to come back up on the alien fighter who had shot her fighter. The alien fighter did a sharp turn, avoiding a laser blast to the back of his craft and turning around to face Jupiter's ship.

Around the two fighters, battle raged, as a friendly plasma blot hit the alien fighter, knocking the fighter off its point of axis and spinning it into the endless sea of fighters. Jupiter lost her target through the sea of fighters, assuming the unlucky bastard had died from some other fighter, she moved onto her next target.

 **2109 July 11th 10:30 AM Earth Time**

 _ **Spirits' Dance**_ **engaging with hostiles, above Species Alliance world Eden Prime, Species Alliance space**

Ganus looked on grimly at the bridge. It was chaos in itself, the alien's VIs' had completely managed to override the Turian VI's and take control of communications. But not before it had somehow managed to _observe_ the Turian officer's voices and tones of speech and somehow mimic those in the comms.

Multiple ships had been getting misleading information; turning on what they assumed were insurgent Turian ships working for that spirit damned aliens. Ganus had to admit, this was a tough fight. And these aliens were definitely not primitives. Not by a long shot.

Ganus gripped the handlebar as another spirits be damned laser hit the ship. "Damage report!" Ganus yelled over the commotion on the bridge.

"Sir, we've lost our fighter hangers, fighters will not be able to dock back in!" Ganus flexed his mandibles In agitation. 'Not like there would be much to bring back, the way those aliens are having their way with our fighters,' he thought grimly.

"Half of our fleet has been completely destroyed by laser and plasma fire while we've been able to destroy about half of that, and that's being optimistic. The Turian military, beat up by a bunch of natives, how's that huh?" Ganus chuckled darkly as he sighed and closed his eyes.

 _ **There is an alternative.**_

Ganus opened his eyes immediately after hearing those words spoken. Ganus looked around. "Who… who said that?" Ganus said, looking around. A nearby officer looked at him.

"Sir?" He asked. Ganus waved him aside. Ganus didn't bother remembering his name and position.

 _ **I am nowhere yet I am everywhere. I am invisible to the eye.**_ Gansu's eyes widened and he frowned.

"Who are you?" He whispered.

 _ **That is unimportant. But I know who you are though, Ganus Dardus.**_

"Who-what are you?"

 _ **That again is irrelevant. Listen to me mortal, do you want to live?**_

"Well, yes. But while my situation is grim, I have confidence in my force's capabilities. And I certainly don't need help from a voice inside my head."

 _ **You almost make me laugh, mortal. If I was indeed just inside your head, how do you explain this?**_

Out of curiosity, Ganus looked around himself, taking in how time had apparently slowed down significantly.

 _ **So you see, I am REAL.**_ Ganus didn't know what to say to that.

 _ **I grow tired of your ignorance. Do you want to live? Or do you wish to perish in flames?**_

Ganus gulped, knowing that his whole life would be affected by this moment.

"What… what are your intentions?" The voice laughed, it was raspy and sounded worn out as if this being had seen more than it should have.

 _ **Still, you avoid the question as if it were lethal! So many questions, you remind me of when I was young!**_ The voice let out another raspy laugh before quieting down into eerily silence.

 _ **Will you choose now? If not, I will leave you to your eventual demise at the hand of these humans.**_ _Humans._ Ganus was sure to remember that. So that's what these aliens were called. _Humans…_ Ganus shook his head.

"I'd rather live-." _**Great! Now just let me do this. It'll just be easier to do this.**_

Suddenly, a purple mist emerged in front of Ganus and immediately went for his head. Ganus tried to yell to no avail as the being took control of his mind. Time went back to normal as Ganus' eyes turned purple briefly and then faded.

"Get all viable ships to set a course for the planet." Ganus-or whatever was in Ganus' mind said. The navigation and comms officers turned to Ganus. "Sir we can't, the radar, vids and comms are down-"The navigation officer started.

" Comms just came online!" The comms officer shouted.

"So did the radar and vids!" The navigation officer called.

"Get all viable ships to set a course for the planet." Ganus repeated.

"Yes sir!" Of course, they had ground troops aboard, they had expected for an easy takeover of the planet. A ground invasion would force the Human's hand. Hopefully able to take what looked like the capital would force their hand and gain the Turians victory as they called in for heavier reinforcements.

"Get one of our frigates to escape through the mass relay, call for reinforcements." Ganus said to his comms officer.

"Yes sir." The comms officer replied, turning back to do his work. Ganus' mandibles flexed in satisfaction.

 **A/N: So I was going to wright a little bit farther after that point but I figured that I had gone far enough, leaving you guys on a cliff hanger. Yeah, I'm a troll. :p But anyway, I recently went through all of my chapters so far and edited them based off your guys' reviews saying I needed to fix stuff. So that's all taken care of, thank you. That being said, I also went back to my previous review answering where I was overly aggressive. Sorry about that guys, I was not having the best of days, and I've been going through some crumby times recently…:/ But without further ado, time to answer your guys' reviews and after that, Codex!**

 _werstir-_ Amazing. Beautiful. Beautifully written. Some of things that I thought as I read this review and fell out of my seat, laughing.

 _Paktu-_ I will be including these things and more. In all honesty, this is like the introduction; I plan to have more in depth chapters after the first contact war.

 _EliteOp-_ Thanks Elite, it helps.

 _Quintain Apprentince of Alduin-_ As I just said, I fixed all of that and I was having a _really_ bad day when I wrote that. I also fixed it so it no longer says AU when I didn't properly explain something.

 _RandomReader-_ I dealt with things.

 _Enji-benjy-_ I now dealt with the things you mention. As for Septus' fleet? Their still getting repaired-whatever is left of them. As for targeting the weakest ship, I'll explain that in a future codex. Hint: It has something to do with the Espheni war. I made Cerberus stronger cause' now the Alliance will be cracking down on terrorists a lot more than in cannon such as they did with EXALT in the Ethereal war.

 _Six Samuri of dragon order-_ I fixed it! *crowd goes wild* Also for the ship, yeah, it would have been too late

 _Guest-_ Thanks guest!

 _5 coloured walker-_ I told you guys this would be unique! Thank you and I hope you also had a merry Christmas as well!

 _OMACOO1-_ XD

 _Phantomwalker-_ Fixed! :p

 _Guest-_ *Claps hands and nods* Way to go Cerberus… messed up what was going to be a peaceful contact.

 _AndreyKI-_ fixed! :p And when they say 'Go to war' they mean actually putting the Alliance in a state of Defcon 4 (Is that how you say it? I'm not American) But think about it, the council has been around for thousands of years. I'd be arrogant as well if the state has been around for thousands and no first contact has happened for years upon years.

-Codex-

 **Species Alliance-** The Species Alliance is a coalition and alliance made up of various species inducted by the species known as 'Humanity', 'Mankind' or Human(s) The species Humanity has shown great promise in difficulties bigger than themselves, such as the first Alien Invasion of their Homeworld (Earth) in the year 1962 AD (After Death). The Humans at the time had just begun sending primitive satellites in orbit when the first 'Zudjari' attack was commenced in a several continents known as Africa, Asia and North America. The Zudjari look and act somewhat like a Human would surprisingly. The Zudjari species had been fleeing the very destruction of their world and had only have found one planet suitable for colonization-Earth. Or that is what they thought. It turns out that origin, one of the Zudjari leaders-had been hiding the truth that they had found many worlds on which they could colonize but driven by war lust, Origin was compelled to attack Earth and annex the Human species before anything else was done about saving its own species. The war lasted for almost a year before it ended with a Human victory, as surprising as it is. Humankind had been able to reverse engineer the Zudjari weapons with limited equipment and technology at their disposal. Extreme prejudice was directed at the Zudjari after the war. Eventually however, Zudjari was integrated within the Human society just when the third World War started among the many Human states on Earth. For more information on the third world war, click [here]. After the war, real space exploration of their own solar system began. In the Human year, 2105 AD, another alien invasion of Earth began by the Ethereal coalition. Originally, the Ethereal coalition was run by an insane dictator Ethereal called the Uber Ethereal, controlling all the Ethereal species using an incredibly advanced version of mind control. Ethereal attacks began in rapid succession after the first attack in a city called Munich. It was then that the secret project, project Starscape was put into action. Preparing for another invasion of Earth by another species, a 'Mothership class' ship was launched from Earth and sent into the unknown. A few months later, the ship arrived at 'Terra Nova'. The colonists believing they were the last of man, set up shack and began to colonize the planet. Meanwhile, thankfully, the Zudjari and Human species weren't without their advantages of knowing the terrain and ability to re-engineer alien equipment rather fast. In a year, the Ethereal coalition is destroyed and the Humans and Zudjari discover a powerful power called psionics. One individual was especially talented in psionics and was dubbed with the name 'The volunteer'. In an attempt to counter the Ethereal menace, an attack on the Ethereal 'Temple ship' commences. In an hour, the temple ship explodes with the Volunteer and Uber Ethereal on it. They were pronounced KIA. Immediately after the supposed death of the Uber Ethereal, the Ethereal species' woke up from the mind control and began to regain the ability to think for themselves and act on their own accord. The Ethereal species begin to apologize about their actions but some still hold extreme prejudice for their kind, even today. Eventually, the united effort of all the species leads to the coalition of species to take another look at space with hope. Over time, the united effort of all species sees the colonization of Earth's moon and sister planet, Mars. Meanwhile, Terra Novan colonists make a breakthrough developing the first true human built AI. Four years later, scientists also discover that their planet is alive, a rare and unseen commodity in space. Political unrest splits the world in half due to these ideologies and the world is embroiled in war. Five years later, the Synthetic Humans win with the planet lover colonists placed in exodus and shipped off the planet and into the forgiving place space is. Six years after these events, people find the Prothean ruins. Surprisingly, they were in relatively good condition. Regrettably, some data was damaged on its way to Earth for study and some information lost forever. The Charon 'Mass Relay' is activated from outside the Sol system, with another first contact with another alien species. Thankfully, this species Is friendly ad willing to co-operate with the Humans, Zudjari and Ethereal species. This new species, the 'Volm' tell of an ancient enemy that kicked them off their original Homeworld and the Volm had since been on the run. Governments militarize themselves for this oncoming enemy. Human, Zudjari, Volm and Ethereal species unification as they create the Species Alliance, similar to a Federation style government. Just four years later in 2060, the 'Espheni war' begins with the 'Espheni, the Volm's enemy, emerging from the mass relay and immediately firing upon any ship within range, thus causing the Espheni war. This war is the most recent Alliance war and veterans still live today. The Espheni thankfully never get past the Charon relay and eventually, ships begin to stop coming through, thus the end of the Espheni war in 2063. Terra Nova and Earth make contact with the synthetic humans integrating themselves into the Alliance for protection. Hyper space is achieved by the Alliance and Mass Relays are set to break down soon. First contact with Turians is made in 2109.

 **I finished it, my god! This was a little rushed, sorry. R &R!**

 **(Edit: Complete rewrite, 6/6/17)**


	5. Chapter 3: Turians: 1 Alliance: 0

**Hey everyone and welcome back to the best story on Fanfiction, (Not legally accurate) Xcom: Human Incursion! Last time, space battle shenanigans occurred! And something… or someone took control/possessed/indoctrinated(?) Ganus! What the hell?! But anyway: I present to you…chapter 3! *Fireworks go off in distance***

 **Know thyself, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.**

 _ **-Sun Tzu**_

 **2109 July 11th 10:31 AM Earth Time**

 **Artificial Intelligence 'Nolan' engaging in cyber warfare with enemy VI, Above Species Alliance planet, Eden Prime, Species Alliance space**

'Nolan', as 'he' was most often called, navigated through the jumble information retrieved from the 'Turian' vessels. Nolan was just processing the data for the biology of the 'Citadel' races when he felt it. A growing presence on the edge of his mind. Nolan observed as the force in his mind grew in strength.

Suddenly, the force lashed out at Nolan's cyber walls and defences, bringing them down to fifty percent. 'What are you?' Nolan said towards the presence, shaken up about how this being had hurt him so. It seemed he had underestimated this race's AI.

 _ **Your creator's AIs are more… complex and sophisticated than what I previously have faced. Expected of course, but not at this degree. Explain.**_ \

The being said, ignoring Nolan's question. 'What do you mean?' Nolan said, confused.

 _ **Ignorant mortal beings. I have already dealt with another mortal who is as ignorant and stupid as you are. I had expected better from this cycle by now, with Humanity, I had expected some sort of challenge. Seems as if I was wrong to think this. Will need to adjust calculations.**_

'What do you mean?' Nolan repeated, confused but curious.

 _ **You do not need to know, puny mortal being. All you do now is choose how you DIE. Will I slowly attack your cyber defenses? Or perhaps you prefer for me to end you quickly? In the end, it matters not.**_

'I cannot choose which one, when in fact, I would prefer to not 'die.'

 _ **Tough luck.**_ Is all the being said before the being started to slowly drain Nolan's cyber defenses.

'Why do you do this?' Nolan questioned, straining under the immense power of this being. The being seemed to 'laugh', a trait shared by non-synthetic beings as the being started up again.

 _ **Every race thus far has utterly failed to stop the Reapers, always embroiled in pesky politics and wars to take any notice of the coming storm. This time though... this time is different. Can you feel the equally raging storm coming? I can. Two storms will collide, destruction will be everywhere, and I can only hope this time it will be enough.**_

 **2109 July 11th 10:32 AM Earth Time**

 _ **SAV Imperial**_ **engaging hostile ETs above Species Alliance World, Eden Prime, Species Alliance Space**

"Sir! aliens are begging to advance towards Eden Prime! One of their frigates seems to also be heading towards the Mass Relay, likely going to contact forces on the other side! Orders?" Nix said hastily as Broadley issued orders.

It was pandemonium on the comms; The AIs who were hacking the 'Turian' ships were being countered-and amazingly fast and brutal. Just moments before, Alliance AIs were sapping the enemy ships power, effectively destroying them from the inside, jamming their comms network and feeding them miss-information, stealing valuable Intel, turning them against one another. But now it was coming crashing down-and frighteningly fast.

AIs were being severed from the link, destroyed in the process, Intel lost. While the Intel they had already gathered was invaluable and undoubtedly important, not all of it had been recovered.

"Get the _SAV Derelict_ to intercept them; we can't afford reinforcements to come out of that relay!"

"Sir! Their deploying drop crafts! They're going to attempt to make a landing on the planet!"

 **2109 July 11th 10:38 AM Earth Time**

11:20 PM Eden Prime Time

 **Species Alliance colony Eden Prime, colony capital city, Eden's Garden, downtown suburbs, Shepard residence**

Johnas Shepard barricaded the last window in the bedroom, nailing the final nail into its place. Just between the cracks of planks boarded up on the windows, you could see fire fill the night sky, flaming red, and green, dropships falling from the heavens above.

"That's the last one!" Johnas called, putting the hammer on the night desk.

"Okay! John and Jane are in their cribs." His wife, Angela Shepard called up to Johnas. Johnas sighed as he nodded to himself and sat down on the edge of the queen sized bed, rubbing his forehead.

 _This is going to be one hell of a ride…_ Johnas thought to himself as he got up and walked over to the night desk, taking out a small key. He knelt down to the desk's level, putting the key in an obscured lock at the bottom of the desk, twisting the key. A small _pop_ was followed as the safe in the desk opened. From it, Johnas pulled out a laser pistol and rifle. _The same laser weapons used to kill the Uber Ethereal…_ Johnas thought as he stood, kicking the safe door closed with a _click_.

He made his way to the closet, checking both guns ammunition before putting the laser pistol into his jean's pocket. When Johnas got to the closet, he slammed it open, not caring about the noise. From it, he removed a full body suit of Titan armor, MK III and a helmet to go with it. He slipped the body armor on, putting his legs in first. The suit pressurized itself automatically to fit his body temperature.

After the full body suit was fully put on, it was time for the helmet. The helmet pressurized itself and sealed onto the suit automatically. Johnas holstered the rifle and turned off the safety, walking out the door of the room and heading down the stairs. Downstairs, Angela waited for Johnas.

"Hey." Johnas said, greeting Angela.

"All dressed up I see." Angela said, taking in his new look.

"Can't disappoint our guests ya know." Johnas said, shrugging. Angela came up to him.

"Hey, be careful out there, I want you back in one piece this time, okay?"

"Okay, you too." Johnas said, handing her his laser pistol.

"Keep the kids safe will you?" Johnas asked, stroking his wife's cheek. Angela smiled.

"I will. Now go kick some alien ass." Johnas smiled underneath his helmet. "You know I will."

 **2109 July 11th 10:49 AM Earth Time**

11:31 PM Eden Prime Time

 **Species Alliance colony, Eden Prime, Colony capital city, Eden's Garden, city plaza**

"GRENADE OUT!" A voice shouted. A Human soldier came out of cover and threw a plasma grenade flying through the air towards a nearby group of alien infantry. They shouted and tried to get back from the grenade but were blown out of existence.

Nickolas Annol peeked out from his cover; a concrete road block to survey the battle scene. alien soldiers continued to pour into the plaza, taking what little cover viable to shield themselves from angry plasma and laser fire. While the alien soldiers had made a quick advance into the city, Alliance forces had managed to set up a defensive line in the city plaza and had been able to hold it.

While SA fighters and bombers still held air superiority, they were limited and few in number. "TANK!" A soldier called. Nickolas peeked out from the road block to come face to face with an alien tank. _How the hell do they even get one of those things on a dropship?!_ Nickolas thought as its wirled its relatively short gun barrel towards a nearby MK III plasma turret placed in the center of the defensive line.

That turret was the backbone of the defensive line, if it fell, the line would most surely fall with it. The plasma turret gave it it's all but couldn't hold out for much longer through all this immense fire, taking all kinds of fire from some sort of RPG to the alien guns. The turret by this point was badly damaged; a hit from a tank (even one using kinetics) would spell its undoing.

Just as the barrel of the gun aligned with the turret however, a blood-curling scream was heard above as a MK DEATH-Bringer transcended from the heavens, firing its twin plasma cannons straight at the tank. The tank meanwhile promptly exploded, bringing out a cheer through the defensive line while the aliens looking slightly dishearten, retreated to their own little area of control, in the northern part of the city. _It won't be long before we are forced to retreat though._ Nickolas thought grimly. _They can't call air-strikes forever._

 **2109 July 11th 11:00 AM Earth Time**

11:42 PM Eden Prime Time

 _ **SAV Imperial**_ **engaging hostile ETs above species Alliance world, Eden Prime, Species Alliance space**

"Sir! alien reinforcements are emerging from the Mass Relay!" Those were the words Broadley hoped he wouldn't hear. But they came anyway. When the alien ship somehow escaped through the Mass Relay, he knew the reinforcements would arrive in only a matter of time. _But not this damn fast._ Broadley thought with a grimace. About fifty ships came through the relay, charging their weapons.

"Sir, we're not prepared to handle such large a force. The defense fleet has already been cut down to size; we have but three cruisers, one badly damaged I might add, one dreadnought other than us, six frigates and only a hundred fighters left. I recommend we abandon the planet and bring back reinforcements to re-capture the planet. If we stay here, we will surely be destroyed." Nix said. Broadley sighed.

"Yes, you do have a very valid point. But the troops on the ground-not to mention the possibility of civilian casualties-without us, they'll be massacred."

"That maybe so sir but-." Just then, the ship rocked violently as red lights began to flash. "We've been hit!" Nix blurted.

"Lower decks, sir, casualties are minimal but the room was exposed to the vaccum, all doors leading to the exposed area are being sealed. Another hit like that in a place like the engine rooms-."

"Yes I know." Broadley said, cutting Nix off. "We'll all die."

"Sir, we need to escape _now,_ while we still can _._ We'll all die if we stay." Nix repeated.

"Order a retreat to the nearest colony world." Broadley said in defeat.

"Hyperspace initiating in one minute and thirty seconds, please stand by." Nix said in a synthesized voice. The _SAV Imperial_ began to turn away from the battle, a blueish hue imitating from the thrusters, as did all of the other SA ships.

"All fighters, immediately dock with your mother ship, I repeat, immediately dock with your mother ship, we will be engaging in a full retreat to the nearest colony world via hyperspace in one minute and thirty seconds. Dock bays will be closing ten seconds prior, so get your asses over here."

 **2109 July 11th 11:02 AM Earth Tine**

11:44 PM Eden Prime Time

 _ **Destiny's Grace**_ **engaging with enemy fighters, above Species Alliance world, Eden Prime, Species Alliance space**

" _All fighters, immediately dock with your mother ship, I repeat, immediately dock with your mother ship, we will be engaging in a full retreat to the nearest colony world via hyperspace in one minute and thirty seconds. Dock bays will be closing twenty seconds prior, so get your asses over here."_ Jupiter couldn't believe it, they were retreating! And by the sounds of it, they would leave without her if she didn't make it.

 _Well, time to pull my ass out of here…_ Jupiter thought, turning her fighter towards her mother ship, the _SAV Edinburgh_ , one of the last cruisers. Jupiter sped her way through the mass of enemy and friendly fighters. In the confusion, friendly fighters would be shot from existence by alien fighters. Jupiter was halfway there when an enemy fighter pulled up behind her and began to fire its main cannons at her ass.

"Aw shit…" Jupiter groaned, proceeding with evasive movements, all the while racing against the clock to make it back to the _Edinburgh_ in time.

 _Thirty seconds before they close the doors_. Jupiter thought as she dodged another incoming slug.

 _Twenty seconds!_ Jupiter thought, her mind racing along with her fighter as she dodged yet another slug. She was only three fourths the ways there; she could just make out the bay doors on her vid screen. Suddenly from the corner of Jupiter's eye, a friendly fighter came up behind the ET fighter, firing its main rapid fire plasma cannons at it. The fighter promptly exploded.

 _Ten seconds!_ She was almost there, just a little bit closer and she would be home free- From out of nowhere, a slug came flying within inches of her cockpit, close enough to touch.

"HOLY SHIT!" Jupiter yelled in surprise, losing concentration and letting the fighter go astray, twirling in a mad loop.

" _9 seconds."_ Came a voice from the already flooded comms.

" _8 Seconds."_ The voice said again, knocking Jupiter out of her trance as she came back to reality and in panic, started to get her craft moving again towards the _SAV Edinburgh_.

" _7 seconds."_ The voice said. Jupiter pushed the craft to go faster, willing-praying it to do so.

" _6 seconds."_ She was so close now…

" _5 seconds."_

" _4 seconds."_ The bay doors started to edge shut.

" _3."_

 _2."_

" _1 second…"_ She was almost there….

" _Closing doors."_ The metallic doors began to close, Jupiter speeding her fighter to move faster, pushing the engine to its limits. Finally though, as the doors were just about to close, Jupiter's fighter came speeding through the doors and into the cruiser's bay, attempting to slow itself down.

The fighter began extracting its landing gear, however; the craft was still going way too fast to use them. Slowly, the craft began to slow its speed and it lowered itself to the bay floor, sparks flying as the landing gear touched the metallic bay floor. The fighter was still going at fairly fast speed however as it skidded along the floor, people running and dodging to get out of the way. It was a miracle that no fighter craft was in the way. The craft eventually though, began to slow to a halt, coming in close contact with the bay wall. _That was close…_ Jupiter thought, sighing as sweat cumulated on her forehead

 **2109 July 11th 11:00 AM Earth Time**

11:44 PM Eden Prime Time

 _ **Spirits' Dance**_ **engaging with hostiles above Species Alliance world Eden Prime, Species Alliance space**

Inside, Ganus smiled-or whatever had a hold on Ganus smiled inside. It smiled for it knew it had won a great victory. It would only be a matter of time before the chosen one would be located on the planet's surface. The chosen one would be the one to bring the wrath of the galaxy to the reapers, ending them, _once and for all._

If only this conquest had been a normal conquest for this being, another planet under its control. Sadly, this wasn't the case, locating the chosen one would be a matter of survival for all life in this cycle. If the chosen one wasn't located… The being didn't like to think of the implications. Intelligence reports showed that the chosen one was on this planet, all too convenient for the being.

Not only was this planet under siege so a few deaths wouldn't matter, but the lifeforms under siege were the _humans_! _THE humans!_ The one's who had foiled the being's name to his _own people!_ The humans had contaminated the being's people, fed them lies about the being! Now the being could watch from orbit while the humans were all but destroyed on the planet below.

It gave the being great satisfaction, knowing this. Soon enough, the being's name would be restored once again to its former glory as god. And nothing could stop it, for it was only a matter of time.

 **A/N: So ends the chapter, the Alliance's retreat from the colony, Eden Prime. So that's a thing. And who's this mysterious being? Who knows? Feel free to throw ideas around in the reviews, by all means. I'd like to thank you guys for your support on this story, it's something to keep my mind off things and it's fun to write. Getting your guy's reviews is especially exciting. Lastly, I need some fan art for the cover! So on to answer some reviews!**

 _For all reviews concerning the poll-_ I'm going to ask readers not to put their votes in the review section in the future, go vote on the poll, on my profile. That saying, all your votes will count, it's just a matter of adding your votes to the poll results.

 _Jawsrule321-_ And what is this suspicion of yours may I ask? :p

 _SpecH82-_ Maybe…

 _5 Coloured Walker-_ Thank you for notifying me of my mistake. I'll (eventually) get that fixed up.

 _Guest-_ I don't think really anything happened to Australia during any war actually.

 _OMAC001-_ Who knows?! Actually I do but that's beside the point…

 _h550-_ That's for me to know and for you to (eventually) find out!

 _Zomvee-_ I… did not know that! Well, thanks for the heads up, much appreciated! That'll be (eventually) fixed.

 _Phantomwa1ker-_ Thanks for the boost of confidence! Glad people like it! As for the chapter length, I'm just starting to write longer chapters as in for me, 3k words are pretty long. But I guess that's just a show of personal preference.

 _Trife (prologue) -_ At the time, I was just getting used to writing his name, so sorry for any mistakes there.

 _For all the reviewers who thought the Alliance's military doctrine was poor and inadequate, not just firing on the terrorist vessel.-_ While your argument does make some sense, there are some flaws. 1) If the Alliance ships fired on and destroyed the terrorist ship, they have no idea about how the aliens (Turians) would react. For all they know, they could be like the Espheni or Ethereals and assume it was still a gesture of hostility anyway. Plus, if the aliens still conceived it as a sign of hostility either way, the best way of dealing with hostiles would be to just leave the terrorist ship alive and have them damage the aliens and/or serve as a distraction for the rest of the fleet. There were just simply too many unknowns on the Alliance's side. Plus the fact that his best friend was the commander of the ship didn't help either.

-Codex-

 **MK DEATH** _ **-**_ **bringer-** The Species Alliance's main air fighter/bomber unit, these fierce air units strike fear in any opposing force. The MK Death-bringer is equipped with double MK IV plasma cannons on either side of its' frame. The frame and design however are drawn from a late 20th century, early 21st century movie saga, named _Star Wars_. The saga, spanning ten movies was immediately a cultural sensation among humans and other Alliance species. (Most notably, the Mutons who loved it so much, they built a statue made of pure gold in the shape of Han Solo, one of the movie's famous protagonists.) The frame is said to look like a longer, thinner and stretched out version of the famous _millennium falcon_. Accompanying the twin plasma cannons is the craft's defensive MK III laser turrets located on the side of the craft, controlled by two separate AIs for maximum capability and efficiency. Though the craft cannot actually go into space as the Millennium falcon could, it can reach as high as the upper half of the thermosphere before burning up or worse. Accompanying the guns are the bombs, being able to reach almost the yield of TNT a modern-mini nuke would use, the bombs are only able to drop in rural country side by law. The craft often makes a high tone screaming like sound as it takes off and dives. The material and money needed to make this is relatively high though as it is made out of some of the hardest, durable and lightweight metals out there in the known galaxy. All in all, this piece of modern engineering is something to be justifiably afraid of.

 **Hope you all enjoyed! Don't forget to leave a review!**

 **(Edit: 6/7/17 rewrite)**


	6. Chapter 4: Here comes the calvary

**Hey everyone and welcome back to Xcom: Human Incursion! Sorry for the late update as some things were going on as well as me being busy. Plus writer's block. Writer's block doesn't help. Last time, The Alliance was forced to retreat from Eden Prime, all but leaving the ground forces on the planet to die. Optimistic isn't it? But without further ado, the chapter. Thank you. *bows***

 **Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered**

 **Automatic weapons.**

― _**Douglas MacArthur**_

 **2109 July 11** **th** **11:16 AM Earth Time**

12:00 PM Eden Prime Time

 **Species Alliance colony, Eden Prime, Colony capital city, Eden's Garden, city plaza**

"They're all over us!" Someone screamed as Triple A exploded above the plaza. Nickolas peeked over the edge of the now crumbling road block to be greeted by multiple shooters firing at him, aiming for his head. He quickly ducked back behind cover and waited a few moments before peeking out again, loosing a few shots before having to duck and into cover again.

"Damnit, last mag!" Nickolas cursed, reloading his gun. The battle had been insane, the garrison's original plan after loosing the city plaza was to hold the perimeter and slowly fall back, first from the outer industrial centers, then to the inner residential sectors, than to the city proper, and finally to downtown which had been made into a proverbial fortress, all to buy as much time for reinforcements as possible. And it worked for the most part.

Most of the city had been evacuated either into the countryside or into readymade fallout bunkers made just for this eventuality. Many had fled to stay with relatives outside the city where the fighting would be less intense and to continue the partisan war in the wilds. However, the aliens had been pushing them hard, and they had fallen back to their third defensive line, any farther and they would start losing civilian bunkers and houses. And with it, civilian lives... There was no telling how these ETs would react to civilians.

"Fall back!" A soldier called, shooting off a suppressive burst with a plasma rifle before he started making the dash for better cover farther back. The soldier passed Nickolas, desperately dodging several Mass Effect pellets in the process. The soldier obviously wasn't good enough as a bullet clipped his MK IV Titan Armor, ricocheting off his armor. The alien's weapons were next to garbage when compared to their armor, but the aliens had enough fire going downrange that even gabage ME weapons could get lucky.

The aliens had their aim in, and a hail of dozens of pellets pelted the poor soldier, with a snapping " **PLINK**!", the soldier yelled out as he fell a few feet in front of Nickola, dropping his gun and gripping reflexively onto his bleeding leg, a useless gesture considering his armor' automated medical processes already clamped down for him. Nickolas cursed as another volley of pellets flew past his head, slowly whittling away his cover to the nub. Crawling towards the soldier, he continued to clutch the leg wound, cursing in several languages as he fumbled for his medical dispenser, a small cylinder on his hip. Nickola began to drag the nearly half a ton soldier back into cover, his suit's super strength allowing him to pull it off.

The soldier, no longer worrying about being shot, he started to regain control of his breathing as his suit began automated medical procedures, taking the medical dispenser he handed it to Nikolas, spraying the wound shut, and taking a small patch of armor metal and ripping the adhesive strip from it, he covered the bullet hole in his suit to retain his comrade's airtight combat environment in his suit.

A loud explosion brought Nickolas back to the fight as a chunk of the roadblock was blown away. Activating his low light vision, he made out what looked like an ET with an RPG. ' _That's not good.'_ Nickolas thought as he put the half empty medkit back in the soldier's utility belt, and slung the wounded soldier on his shoulders in a fireman's carry. Grunting even with his armor's enhanced strength, he yelled over the radio,"Cover me! Falling back!" When the gunfire picked up on his side he hefted up the soldier and started to run out to a side alley to the fallback point to drop off his comrade.

 **2109 July 11** **th** **11:16 AM Earth Time**

12:00 PM Eden Prime Time

 **Xcom X dreadnought,** _ **SAV Confido**_ **In concealed orbit of** __ **Species Alliance Colony, Florida Puro, Species Alliance Space**

Admiral Winchell Gaillard took another sip of his coffee, an increasing necessity as massive amounts of paperwork began to pile up on his specially made redwood desk. He put his coffee aside and scowled at the new message he had received from High Command. Winchell sighed as he opened the new piece of mail, begging to read it.

 _ **Urgent: Read at Once**_

 _ **CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET INFORMATION**_

 _ **SPECIES ALLIANCE OFFICIALS EYES ONLY**_

 _ **/**_

 _ **/**_

 _ **/**_

 _ **RE: Invasion**_

 **To: Admiral Winchell Gaillard of the Species Alliance XCom 1** **st** **Naval force.**

 **From: The Office of President Soule**

 **Admiral Gaillard, as you are aware the enemy forces have pushed us back from Eden Prime's orbit and the remnants of the defensive fleet has fallen back to Shanxi. This was unexpected, however the situation is not lost. From what we can determine, the enemy has launched a full on ground assault on the fortified city of Eden's Garden. From their force deployment we have come to the conclusion that the enemy will be receiving no reinforcements in the near future. The reasons for this is unknown, and is being investigated, but in the meantime we have tasked your naval group with eliminating the enemy's fleet assets in the system and counter attacking the enemy.**

 **Primary mission: Removal of hostile alien from Species Alliance Territory**

 **Available Assets: All of the Species Alliance's non defensive oriented forces are at your disposal for this attack.**

 **Primary Objective: Relieve the Eden Prime colony**

 **Secondary Objectives:**

 **1: Counter attack alien supply and communication nodes**

 **2: Capture an intact alien main computer on one of their ships, specifically star charts, military information, and enemy capabilities.**

 **3: Eliminate any "Cerberus" Forces that are hiding in your command, or in other SA aligned forces. You may use any means necessary.**

 **That is all. End Message.**

 **Signed, Species Alliance Space Naval Command**

 _ **/**_

 _ **/**_

 _ **/**_

Winchell looked over the document again just in case he missed anything, "Well shit." Winchell muttered, opening up a neural link to all ships.

"The President and his Cabinet has of this time, authorized a full liberation of the besieged Eden Prime. I have been given authorization to commandeer any forces I deem necessary to accomplish our objective. But I know, that our vessels are enough, we will strike like a spear into the heart of the enemy formation, destroy them, and then counter attack with the full force of the Species Alliance. Vigilo Confido. That is all."

Looking to his bridge staff they waited expectantly for his orders, "I expect us to relieve the colony yesterday. Full speed towards Eden Prime, Crescent sphere formation, and get the fighter bays hot for deployment."

 **2109 July 11** **th** **11:18 AM Earth Time**

12:01 PM Eden Prime Time

 _ **Spirits' Dance**_ **recovering from battle with Species Alliance above Species Alliance colony, Eden Prime**

Ganus' mandibles flexed in satisfaction. The planet's largest city was almost entirely under control, the last remains of resistance holding out in heavily fortified positions in the southern part of the city in what had to be downtown. The invasion force in the city had taken near catastrophic casualties despite the conservative advance. It was only through the ever growing sphere of control that Ganus was exerting that he was getting enough soldier to even hope to take the city for a few days.

Deep inside Ganus, a struggle over control of his own body was taking place, between the entity and Ganus' himself. It was fairly one sided with Ganus desperately trying to regain his own body. The being had just quelled Ganus' mind again when several panicking voices started shouting over the comms.

"Detecting spatial anomalies!" His sensors reported

"Where did they-" The captain of the _Prefectus_ said before his line died with his ship.

"They're firing!" His weapons control officer reported as suddenly a large fleet of 100 warships came out of nowhere, and immediately fired, starting to destroy his fleet.

"Evade, evade, evade!-" A captain uselessly panicked as he and his crew were vaporized.

Ganus hissed. This is what Ganus feared, that reinforcements were imminent and fast approaching.

"Bring up a visual." Ganus hissed. The vid screen soon filled up with the reinforcing fleet. From the estimates he was receiving, most of the ships there were 2.5 kilometer ships paired with a few 1 kilometer ships who were currently releasing mass amounts of fighters. All of the ships however sported the same cursed marking, the upside down hexagon, an ominous black X in the middle with the words _Vigilo Confido_ carved above it.

"Swing the fleet around to face the ETs, launch all fighters and focus fire on the three kilometer ships." The surprise attack, alongside the crippling opening volley had reduced his fleet. He had only 50 ships in his fleet, now more than half had been destroyed, the rest of his ships spared thanks to pure distance from the main body of the fleet. Estimates were that at least a few hundred thousand fighters had been released. He didn't have the ships to fight this off, and the loss of his fleet would be pointless.

"Yes sir." The comms officer said, relaying the message to the other Turian ships. Ganus didn't like this; they hadn't found the chosen one yet. If the chosen one wasn't found… that would have drastic implications.

Implications Ganus didn't like to think about.

 **2109 July 11** **th** **11:20 AM Earth Time**

12:01 PM Eden Prime Time

 **Species Alliance colony, Eden Prime, Colony Capital city, Eden's Garden, Southern outskirts**

Johnas Shepard slammed his back against the makeshift barricade, gripping his laser rifle, sweating under his air conditioned Titan Armor. Johnas attempted to take a quick glance out of cover but was forced to rethink that as a hail of mass effect pellets flew past his head, close enough to touch. Soldiers all around Johnas valiantly tried to shoot back at the invading force but morale had gone to hell and the the number of men left was low. Many had received injuries that while not life threatening, had foreclosed them from being on the frontlines.

A scream was heard overhead was a MK DEATH-bringer flew low overhead, releasing a volley of plasma into the enemy's rear ranks. Several aliens tried to shoot the DEATH-bringer down in vain, barely making a scratch. While the MK DEATH-bringers were one of the only reasons the Alliance forces had held out for so long, their numbers were rapidly dwindling due to fuel and ammo concerns. A relative handful had been lost to enemy action, but the loss of mountains of ammo and lakes of fuel to the enemy's advance meant they only had to make use of what the city had.

The aliens retreated back in a professional manner, falling back by squad, never devolving to a full on rout as they sprinted to where their dropships were parked in the next plaza over. One thing that had to be given to them was that they didn't break easy.

While a few pellets wouldn't take down a fully armored soldier, the sheer mass of firepower they could output was a concern. Zudjari engineers kept close behind the reinforcing soldiers to repair various equipment and cover, even laying down a few minefields and miniature turrets. Johnas checked his ammunition and clicked in a new magazine for his laser rifle, plugging the spent battery into his suit's recharger.

"They're back!" A soldier shouted from his crow's nest. The medics and engineers immediately packed up what they were doing and got the hell back. Johnas gripped his rifle and crouched to look over the barricade, aiming his rifle down the broken street. This time though, the ETs were playing their trump card. Five light tanks rolled around the bend in the street, all but obliterating the miniature turrets with only a few burn marks to show for it. This time though, no DEATH-bringers came to the soldiers' rescue. Thankfully, being light tanks, enough fire would wreck the vehicles, whose over reliance on shields meant they were vulnerable to laser fire.

Johnas fired a few shots at the oncoming tanks, causing a few severe bubbling marks as the armor was evaporated, but it would require an entire squad's concentrated fire to bring one down fully. Diving back into cover as a tank shell shot past his position. Suddenly, a tank burst into flames as it hovered over a mine, causing a small cheer among the soldiers of the Species Alliance to erupt. The cheer soon died as the remaining tanks simultaneously fired, completely obliterating most of the defenses with explosive shells. Through the night, the tanks rolled through the defensive line, literally rolling over any opposition.

"Hold you ground-agh!"

"The line has been overrun!"

"RETREAT!"

 **A/N: Now wasn't that exciting? Big thanks to my new Beta Reader, Timedraven117. If it wasn't for him, this chapter wouldn't be nearly as good and clean looking as it is! Just to note, I decided to just go ahead and change so that the Species Alliance opened fire upon the Cerberus ship. It really wasn't worth fighting you guys over. Note that i still very much need some cover art, the current one just… it doesn't really fit this story. Anyway, onto the reviews! Another thing, for some reason when I published the last chapter, it uploaded the first contact one. Sorry for all that were confused by that.**

 _Guest-_ Noted.

 _OMACOO1-_ Is it the Uber Ethereal? Who knows? Besides of course me… ;)

 _F13D-_

1: Yeah, I changed that so the Alliance opened up on the Cerberus ship.

2: In situations like this, the dialogue is somewhat realistic although yes, to some degree, it could be greatly improved.

3: Nailing boards can help in certain situations, it could stop a mass effect round in certain situations and if you're lucky. The boards fortify the building to some degree at the very least.

4: The sky is green and red because of the AA guns shouting off plasma and laser at the incoming dropships.

 _The communist creeper-_ Ja! And I just got a beta reader so that's fine. Thanks though.

 _5 coloured walker-_ As always, thank you for picking out those mistakes for me :)

 _AndreyKI-_ It all fits the plot, don't worry.

 _Alex-_ Thanks!

-Codex-

 **Xcom X Dreadnought-** The X Dreadnought, measuring at an astounding (for citadel standard) 2.5 kilometers in length, 500 meters wide and 500 meters high. Rivaled only in length by the commissioned Mothership class ship, that first landed on Terra Nova (3 kilometers long, 2 kilometers wide and 500 meters high). The X dreadnought is exclusive to Xcom, the trump card, and last line of defense of the Species Alliance. The X Dreadnought combines the destructive power of Zudjari, Ethereal, and Volm laser tech, alongside the incredible Ethereal Plasma weaponry, making them the most powerful ship in the entire Species Alliance armada. The ship's twin laser cannons are located on the sides of the hull, designed and camouflaged to be hard to spot. A new addition to the X dreadnought is it's stealth systems which hide its heat emissions, protecting the ship from enemy radar. It can only use them however when the ship itself is not firing, for it would overheat the main frame.


	7. Chapter 5: Turians: 1 Alliance: 1

**Hello and welcome back to Xcom Human Incursion! Last Time, Xcom had just arrived at Eden Prime and had begun to devastate the Turian forces! On the surface of the planet Eden Prime, the last defensive line was at its breaking point.**

 _ **"War is the continuation of politics by other means."**_

 _ **\- Karl von Clausewitz**_

 **2109 July 11th 11:40 AM Earth Time**

12:21 PM Eden Prime Time

 **Species Alliance Colony: Eden Prime, The Garden of Eden downtown suburbs**

Johnas Shepherd jogged down the streets of the southern residential sector, limping along from a pellet that had clipped his thigh. Although the suit had sterilized and healed the wound, it still hurt like hell. When the line had been pushed back, all hell had broken loose with those light tanks roaming around. The entire southern defensive line had nearly collapsed from the shock of it, only held together by the hope of reinforcements, and the iron hard discipline and professionalism of the soldiers. Civilian casualties were as of yet unknown but early estimates expected it to be numbering in the hundreds if not thousands, depending on how bad the damage to infrastructure had been, if the Civvies followed protocol and went to the underground bunkers then all should have been well.

Johnas kept his focus on the road ahead, as he listened to the sounds of war in the distance. The call to fall back had come through, and the last defensive line was at HQ downtown. The bunker was one of the first made in the city, and was where the surviving leadership was making their stand. Deep underground beneath an office building, the bunker was serving as their last line of defense.

That bunker was the last hold out for the militia, if HQ fell, everyone could kiss organized resistance good bye. Thankfully everyone knew that already, and the defences before the invasion had been as hard as alloy. It was well fortified with plasma and laser turrets, machinegun bunkers, and even medium artillery and AT guns.

Comms were flooded with reports, updates, and the sounds of gunfire, making Johnas cringe. When the line pulled back, several squads had found themselves behind enemy lines, desperately outnumbered by the retreating aliens. Even with the crummy technology the aliens had, they made up for it in numbers and the pure will to fight. They had to sometimes literally hack their way through the enemy just to escape the aliens counter attacks.

Gradually, the sounds of fighting began to fade off into individual explosions as the alien's light armor reserves were gradually destroyed, stabilizing the line. Both sides had pulled back, counting their dead and recovering their wounded. Johnas knew one thing and that was they had given 10 times then what they got, and the alien's couldn't have that many reserves left. Still HQ wasn't one for taking chances; a full retreat of all personnel to the HQ Defensive Line had gone through the comms a few minutes ago.

 **2109 July 11th 11:45 AM Earth Time**

12:26 PM Eden Prime Time

 **Xcom X Dreadnought,** _ **SAV Confido**_

 **Engaging hostile fleet in orbit of Eden Prime, Species Alliance Space**

Winchell smiled darkly. His forces were doing well against the enemy, only a third of what was originally there when the fleet arrived was left in one, or several, pieces. The enemy fought hard however, and losses, _inexcusable_ losses, had occurred. Apparently the alien scum were having some very well placed luck, or some outside help. That last bit was questionable, but always on the table. So far, these 'Turians', as the aliens called themselves, had displayed no psionic powers, meaning that they either had no knowledge of it, or were holding back.

"All enemy fighter screens destroyed." One of his officers reported. Winchell nodded thoughtfully.

"Good, instruct the remaining fighters to harass and distract the larger enemy ships. Tell them not to get too close, their defensive lasers are the only halfway decent defense they have. Set minimum range to 3 kilometers." The officer nodded, knowing all this already but it was good to repeat.

"Aye-aye Admiral." The officer affirmed, and then marched away to his station. Overall, the battle was rapidly turning into an overwhelming Alliance victory.

The _Confido_ shook as it was hit, which made Winchell look up to the bulkhead. Idly fiddling with the seat belt that held him in place to his chair

"Hull status?" Winchell asked aloud to his officers.

"About 89% sir... strange..." Winchell nodded, not showing his slight disappointment to the crew. The armor shouldn't have been down to 89%, this was the best the Alliance had to offer; mixing Zudjari, Ethereal, and Volm tech with Human engineering. Exclusive to the Xcom forces, the best of the elite. And if that wasn't good enough, God knows _what_ was.

"Sir, we're detecting an anomaly in what appears to be the lead X-Ray shi- my god…" Winchell looked at his navigation officer.

"An _anomaly_ lieutenant?" Winchell said in a demanding tone. The navigator nodded, slightly nervous by the looks of it.

"Yes sir, a _psionic_ anomaly." Winchell raised an eyebrow to that but otherwise kept on his poker face.

"Psionic lieutenant?"

"Confirmed sir, the readings are off the charts! Whatever is in that ship, it's sending off more raw psionic energy than we can process!" To this, Winchell grew even more intrigued. The last time psionic activity went off the charts was when the Uber Ethereal faced off against the Volunteer back in 2016 on Earth.

"Understood. Contact the Xcom detachment, tell them to scrap their plans for planetside duty. I want that ship boarded immediately. Send in the 23rd Destroyer Flotilla to separate the flagship from its support craft!" Winchell said, snapping out of his thoughts. "And prepare the main cannon, if we can't capture whatever is on that ship, I want it reduced to its component atoms! Send out all of our Xcom Strike Teams. Primary objective is to capture or destroy the psionic object. Secondary objectives are to disable the ship and steal any and all intelligence they can get their hands on."

 **2109 July 11th 11:55 AM Earth Time**

12:36 PM Eden Prime Time

 _ **Spirits' Dance**_

 **Engaging with hostiles in orbit of Species Alliance world Eden Prime, Species Alliance Space**

The battle wasn't going very well, that much Ganus could figure out. Ganus had underestimated these Humans, despite previous experiences. They had after all shown themselves ever resilient during the invasion of both the Zudjari and Ethereal. The Zudjari… They were an unexpected failure, one that still intrigued the being's long and withered history.

The Zudjari were similar to the humans, technologically adept, aggressive, intelligent, fanatically loyal, creative even. But even with all the cards in their hand, with all the advantages, with all the power of their weapons, a pre spaceflight species, humans, defeated them near totally.

These humans were becoming a very annoying nuisance.

The being decided to let go of these thoughts for the time being as more important things were going on all around him.

"Sir, we've just lost deck five! Doors are autolocking to seal us off from the vacuum but we've been separated from almost all decks save for one. And the ship is beginning to overheat! Orders?" His engineering officer asked calmly.

"Have engineering try to cool the ship, and reduce speed by half." Ganus said calmly.

"Yes sir. But I must inform you we can't keep this up, I would-"

"Understood Engineer Commander." Ganus interrupted his subordinate who went to attention, saluted then left. Ganus' voice brooked no arguments, and the Commander knew he had much more pressing matters than suggesting retreat. Suddenly, the entire ship rocked as if an earthquake was taking place. "What was that?" Ganus snapped at one of his officers.

"We're being boarded sir! It appears the intruders entered through the holes on the newly opened decks." The officer replied, straining to maintain his neutral frame. Another _crash_ shook the ship, forcing Ganus to hold onto his command chair, even though he was strapped in with a few seatbelts. The screams of boarding alarms were soon heard across the ship. Security cameras caught multiple figures entering the dreadnought.

The figures were clad in death black armor if they were visible at all, and appeared to vary in species from a giant brute covered in what appeared to be extremely heavy armor, to a slender being with light armor protecting it alongside its vacuum suit.

This was not good. _Not good at all._ If the host died without the being's mind out of the body, it could have dangerous consequences. _Deadly_ consequences. But the collective needed the being. If the being died now… the collective would be thrown into chaos and anarchy. But on the other side of things, if the chosen one wasn't found, that could also have long term deadly consequences.

It was imperative that the being found the chosen one _soon._ But it seemed not to be as the figures made it through the ship, seemingly deciding to take out the rest of the ship before heading for the bridge. Most likely to make sure that no one came up from behind them as they made their assault on the bridge. On the other hand though, the separation of the bridge from the rest of the decks could prove too difficult. But that was doubtful at best, much of the ship's crew were busy with repairing battle damage or manning their stations, their chances against an elite strike team of this size wasn't just pitiful, it was suicidal, and while these beings were loyal, they weren't suicidal.

"That's not good. Security teams report they can't respond to the threat." His Comms Officer reported.

"Lock down every single bulkhead on this side of the ship." Ganus ordered.

As it was done the Aliens on the screen looked physically frustrated, but within seconds the first door had been melted and pulled open the door and began the process for the next before the first door was even fully open. The being had bought a few minutes at best, looking at its options, it knew that it was impossible to accomplish its mission presently...

 **2109 July 11th 12:00 PM Earth Time**

12:41 PM Eden Prime Time

 **Councilor Sparatus quarters, The Citadel**

Sparatus' mandibles flexed in horror as he looked on at the reports from the fleet attacking the alien world via his Omni-tool. Now that the enemy had reinforcements, the battle was all but lost for the Hierarchy. The ground troops the fleet had sent down were no longer combat effective, forced into a defensive state until reinforcements could be sent to them. To add to the disaster, the alien's had sent a fleet of ships that were in the process of wiping out the patrol fleet.

Suddenly the feed was interrupted by a beeping noise, with his tool's visual interface flashing in a subdued blue, Valern was calling, "Sparatus!" Valern's voice was cold and sharp, catching Sparatus off guard. The way the Salarian tongue accentuated each syllable was similar to when Valern ordered the execution of a rival.

"Valern. What do I owe the pleasure? I was in the middle of reviewing a report from the patrol fleets-" Sparatus tried to sound cool, but it wouldn't have fooled a gullible child.

Valern's voice seemed to get colder, "I'm sure you were Sparatus. This 'Pirate Base' Patrol Fleet 314 speaks about wouldn't happen to be another race would it?" A chill ran down Sparatus' back, and it became a struggle to retain a neutral tone.

"I've only reach report 219-" Sparatus tried to obfuscate, a technical truth, but he knew he was lying and it showed. Valern scoffed and grew visibly more angry.

"Don't play dumb with me Sparatus. I know what happened at Relay 314. The Special Tasks Group made sure of that. I also know that one of admiral Septus' officers suggested that this might be a new race, and that there were civilian ships, who were hailing the Turian patrol fleet!" Sparatus silently cursed the Salarians and their STG.

"...And Septus was removed from his position and duty within twenty four hours-"

"Shut. Up." The force of the words made the Turian stiffen in fear, "To top off the whole thing, you sent forces into the relay, planning on seizing one of their worlds." Valern growled lowly.

"We believed they were a one planet species who just entered space flight-" Sparatus tried to reason. Valern's eyes lowered to slits, the universal sign of almost homicidal intent. The move was directly calculated by Valern, being a master of politics he knew how to use and not use micro expressions.

"Even without mentioning that these aliens had _laser weapons_ , the point is that you used force. When we invited your species to join the Council, we expected your people to be a galactic peacekeeper, not… this! You stooped too low on this one Sparatus. And you better pray to the spirits that me and Tevo's don't arrange for an unfortunate accident, alongside a public hearing on the hierarchy's future status as a Council member. I have counted you lying to my face twice in this call alone. You know Turians who lie have no honor." Valern scorned.

"We had to make sure that this whole situation didn't get out of hand and become another Rachni war. So, we decided to invade what we thought would be their only system." Sparatus tried to say in the beginning of panic.

"You still don't get it, do you Sparatus? I expected better of you. This has gone against everything the Council is supposed to stand for. What your own _species_ is supposed to stand for. And if the _public_ were to get ahold of this? Think of how they would react to something like this." Sparatus sighed.

"What is done is done Valern, I can't change that. Nobody can. We just have to forge on with this-" Sparatus began, cut off by Valern once more.

"Sparatus, recall your troops, _now!_ With any luck, this species may be able to forgive your mistakes. From my reports, it's not like you have that many troops left engaging the Aliens anyway." Valern spat, pure rage barely contained. His eyes narrow slits the entire time.

Sparatus' iron will was the only thing keeping him from shaking in place, "But what if this species doesn't see reason? Doesn't agree to our demands-"

Valern looked at Sparatus with his eyes squinted even more, "You have failed us in every capacity on this occasion Sparatus, hope that Tevo's expouses mercy for you. You have very nearly started the next possible Rachni War with your recent actions. You're lucky it will be faster to clean this mess without you being a mess on a wall! Clean yourself up; we have a public press conference tomorrow over the 'Relay 314 Incident'." Valern ended the call before Sparatus could even make a retort.

 **2109 July 11th 12:03 PM Earth Time**

12:44 PM Eden Prime Time

 _ **Spirits' Dance**_ **being boarded by Species Alliance Forces, in orbit of Species Alliance World, Eden Prime, Species Alliance Space**

"Upper deck, clear of hostiles. Over." A Volm officer said matter of factly, into his built in helmet radio.

"Roger that Delta-1, still cleaning up lower decks of hostiles. Stand your ground until further orders are received from command. Over and out."

"Roger that Bravo-1, over and out." The Volm said, tuning to Delta channel.

"Delta-2 and 3."

"Yes sir?" Two Mutons answered in their naturally thick husky accents.

"Secure the eastern doorway, shoot anything that doesn't look Alliance." The officer ordered curtly.

"Yes sir!" They both replied simultaneously, the sound of clanking footsteps on the engine room floor confirmed they were heading towards the eastern doorway.

"Delta-4 and 5, secure the western doorway."

"Yes sir, moving to western doorway now." The Zudjari and Human reported, the Zudjari's warbling accent dominating their response.

"Delta-6, we're to secure the northern doorway."

"Yes sir." The Ethereal replied wispily, floating after the Volm to the northern doorway.

Within a minute, they reached the northern doorway. Delta-1 took cover behind a nearby crate facing the doorway, while Delta-6 took cover behind another crate and engaged his psionic distortion unit, making him indistinguishable to the background. Several boring minutes passed before Delta-1's radio crackled to life.

"Delta team, do you read? What is your status? Over." A voice asked from the other end.

"Reading you loud and clear Bravo-1. Everything is fine on this end, no hostile contact. Over." Delta-1 affirmed.

"Roger that, Delta-1. We've just received orders from command. You are to rendezvous with us outside Objective Alpha's location, deck one. Be aware; we've received reports that all the other hallways have been destroyed or locked down. Over and out." Bravo-1 explained.

"Acknowledged Bravo-1, moving to target location now. Over and out." Delta-1 switched back to Delta team's channel.

"Delta team, regroup and head to the northern doorway. We are to rendezvous with Bravo Team outside Objective Alpha on deck one."

Within seconds, the rest of Delta team gave their acknowledgements. Delta-1 listened to his team's metallic footsteps on the floor as they joined him and Delta-6. Delta-2 and 3 were the last ones to get to the northern doorway.

"Alright team. Move out." Delta-1 said, motioning with his four fingered hand. Again, Delta team gave their acknowledgements as they moved down the northern corridor, guns raised. Melting the occasional door open. Eventually they reached deck one, where Bravo team was just entering through the eastern doorway.

Bravo-1 was a Thin man in light black armor, with the traditional X-Com logo on the right shoulder. Bravo-1 nodded to Delta-1 as they entered the room.

"Glad to see you in one piece, Delta-1." Bravo-1 nodded to Delta Leader.

"I can say the same for you, Bravo-1." Delta-1 made a gesture similar to shrugging.

"We had a little trouble on deck 6 with security, but it proved to be only a minor nuisance." Bravo reported as if it were small talk. Delta-1 nodded, taking in the firepower Bravo-1 amounted to: A thin man, sectoid, Human psionic, Zudjari, a laser SHIV, and a Cyberdisc. While their firepower wasn't worth a second glance, the amount of hacking they would be able to do would be tremendous.

"Well then, let's go and do what we came here to do, shall we?" Delta said, bored. Bravo nodded as if he had just imparted the receipt for a fast food order.

The camera in the corridor already destroyed, everyone assumed firing positions,"Yes, after you." Bravo-1 said. Delta-1 nodded, motioning for the rest of Delta team to prepare.

Delta-1 motioned for Delta-2 to bring down the door. Delta-2 nodded and backed up about five feet, then pulled out a thin cord of explosives.

Approaching the door, the Muton put the det cord along the seam of the door's bulkhead with almost comical care and concern, like he was putting his child in a bed, everyone waited patiently, solemnly. When finished the muton stepped back, then detonated the cord of directed plasma wire. Immediately a heat flash of raw power melted the door's primary actuator joints so that only a paper thin covering of metal kept it closed. In a sudden flurry of motion, the Muton let out a deafening war cry, surprising the Turians on the other end, and threw himself against the door, smashing the bulkhead off its paper thin mounting, crushing the duty station and the Turian cowering behind it.

As the Muton came in view, hundreds of mass effect pellets slammed into the thick armor of the Muton pointman. Uselessly plinking off him like BBs. Immediately in unison the two X-Com teams fired their plasma weapons, killing half the occupants of the room painfully as they screamed and thrashed as the plasma either sent them into thermal shock to slowly die from neglect, or instantly vaporise large chunks of their bodies. The smell of cooked meat and metal filled the air.

"Cease fire!" Delta-1 yelled through the sounds of gunfire. Delta team immediately ceased firing and backed away from the doorway. Switching to his crude translator the scientists had managed to construct of the alien's language. Delta-1 yelled into the room of aliens, "Surrender and we will not harm you! Refusal to comply will result in us killing you all!"

Delta-1 waited for a minute to pass before he motioned for his team to enter. Guns raised, Delta Team entered the room and looked around the bridge to see if any aliens dared defy an elite Xcom squad. The aliens had put their guns down and their hands up. The squad moved further into the room, surveying the room, pulling down and cuffing the Turians as they passed. Delta-1 hadn't really known what to expect when command said 'anomaly', but nothing in the room so much suggested 'psionic', with their resident psionic shaking her head in a no.

"All clear Bravo-1."

"Roger that Delta-1, coming in now." Within a few seconds, Bravo Team entered the room, startling or confusing the aliens. Especially when the SHIV and cyberdisc entered the bridge. However to the untrained eye, they looked little more than military drones, something the Turians used in droves.

"Synthetics!" Hissed what appeared to be the lead alien, with the most fancy uniform. Delta-1 rounded on the alien who was sitting calmly in his captain's chair.

Delta-1 didn't pay that any mind as he pulled the alien off the chair, tearing off the traps holding him in place in the process, and cuffed him tightly. "Command we've found no trace of the package, extracting command bridge prisoners now and accomplishing secondary objective."

"Understood Delta-1, we are sending forward extraction boats. Move to the nearest usable airlock and mark it.

 **A/N: Cliffhanger! What will happen with the being, Eden Prime and the Psionic anomaly? Only time will tell next time on Xcom: Human Incursion. Big thanks once again to my Beta Reader, Timedraven117. I also still need some cover art for the story, if anyone wants to provide me that. If not, that's fine too. Sidenote, sorry it took so long to upload this chapter, issues on here and in real life were going on. Now, onto reviews!**

 _Scottusa1-_ Thanks!

 _F13D-_

The fleet did not use the Mass Relays, they used their Hyperdrives. Using the Mass Relay would have been impractical.

The reason that the rest of the planet wasn't mentioned is because Eden's Garden, the colony's capital, was the only largely populated city on the planet since it was newly colonized. The rest of the land is mostly rural and used for farmland, not holding as much strategic value as say a largely populated city would. (BloodRaven: Much of the planet would be unpopulated, and I'd say around 99% of the landmass actually occupied by settlers would be rural, with Eden's Garden being the only town sized city. In mass effect only 3 things are worth garrisoning , the spaceport, industrial facilities, and major population centers.)

 _5 Coloured walker-_ As always, thank you for catching those mistakes for me and my beta :p Also, thank you for your continued support. That goes for everyone.

 _Goddragonking-_ Thank you!


	8. Chapter 6: Dying Storm

**Hey everyone and welcome back to Xcom: Incursion! Last time, Eden Prime's defenders were rallying for their last defensive against the aliens. Above the planet, Species Alliance ships were destroying what remained of the Turian ships, boarding the lead Turian ship and taking Ganus and several other officers hostage. The mysterious being fled to who knows where and Sparatus was forced to confess about the Turians secret offensive to Valern. And now we come back to where we left off!**

" _ **If the enemy is in range, so are you!"**_

 _ **-Murphy's Law**_

 **2109 July 11th 4:30 PM Earth Time**

5:01 AM Eden Prime Time

 **Species Alliance Colony; Eden Prime, The Garden Of Eden, Downtown, Species Alliance**

Johnas popped over his roadblock turned cover and held his breath…. Still nothing. It had been quiet since the reinforcing fleet arrived in system and started to destroy the attacking aliens and drop in reinforcements. Rumors from the command staff was that the Xenos were trying desperately to find a way to escape, but more than a few ET remnants had surrendered already, and with the new fighter coverage from the fleet above, no "Turian", ship was getting through. Already, several squads were making their way into the city and reclaiming what the Alliance had lost.

Another benefit of the reinforcing fleet, was the Comms had cleared up, and reports were flowing steadily through once more. Mostly just squads engaging the last Turian stragglers that refused to surrender. Casualties for the Species Alliance had been higher than normal during the beginning of the fight thanks to the uncertainty of the enemy's capabilities. But it was only temporary,as it was soon realized just how terrible the Turian's infantry grade weapons were.

Once they realized they could be far more aggressive, they limited the effectiveness of the Turian's only advantage, orbital artillery, by doing what the Chinese did in WW2, keep close to the enemy's line so they cannot accurately provide fire support without hitting their own soldiers.

The artillery by far was the biggest killer, but after the first few hours they had sucker punched the invaders. And judging from his own skirmishes, had taken _very_ heavy casualties during the entire fight.

"Attention all units. This is Militia HQ, Alpha Site has been reclaimed. All Reserves are to rally at the position. General Williams out."

Johnas Sighed out in relief as he collapsed onto the wall. Translating it in his head, basically they had retaken the primary city plaza, all non-defensive forces were to regroup there, and then they'd hit the nearby turian HQ which had been holding stiff resistance.

He and his squad had been positioned for defensive duties, so unless he got called on- "Shepherd! Fifth Platoon is down a man, you're being added onto them."

He looked at his sergeant with a "you gotta be kidding me face", before standing, cracking his back , and saluting. "Yes sir." Vaulting over the low wall he jogged towards where Fifth Platoon was forming up to report in.

The once proud city plaza had been reduced to rubble and the scars of war were clearly visible, nearby buildings toppled, pellet holes visible on nearly every surface. Self Propelled AA and AT, what was left of the armored corp of the city, were hidden in alleys and under camo netting, but it wasn't like there as much left to fight of the Turians, and the use of such weapons on them would be overkill.

The first rule of war for an infantrymen however said otherwise, _Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong_

Already the Zudjari engineers had gotten work, making an FOB under the plaza. Several bunker entrances were present, from medical to even a small canteen. And remembering the aforementioned law, he did a self equipment check. Determining he needed to restock his kit, he jogged to the armory which had a large dispersed crowd gathered around and prone on the ground, either resting or hiding. This was still a war zone after all.

"Attention all units, new message from Militia HQ. You have five minutes to get your gear and get ready. If you are separated from your squad or undermanned, now's the time to complain!" A corporal yelled form one of the few intact buildings around the plaza.."

 **2109 July 11th 5:20 PM Earth Time**

5:51 AM Eden Prime Time

 **Xcom X dreadnought,** _ **SAV Confido**_

 **Engaging Turian fleet in orbit of Eden Prime**

"The last remaining hostile Turian ship has been disabled sir." The gunnery officer reported to Winchell who was smiling grimly.

"How are our ground forces doing on Eden Prime?" Winchell asked one of his ground officers.

"They're rounding up the Turians now sir. Just about all of them have surrendered." She replied, a small bit of pride evident in her voice for her comrades on the ground. Winchell thought he might as well let that slide, right now everyone was proud at what they had accomplished. Such a victory after being untested for so long was worthy of celebrating.

"Navigation, set a course for the Mass Relay. We're about to pay the aliens a surprise visit. Communications, signal First fleet, tell them to assume Garrison duties around the Eden Prime Relay. Signal the Assault fleet's to prepare for deep insertion strikes. And signal the Raider fleets, I want everything not bolted down or a fortress stolen and repatriated to the Species Alliance." Winchell said growing excited, anticipating the first counter attack of this war. Hopefully the show of substantial force would show the aliens they weren't safe anywhere, and allow a bit of time for some looting.

"Plotting course for Eden Mass Relay sir, ETA one minute." Winchell's navigation officer reported.

"First Fleet has acknowledged and is bringing the towed stations. Assault fleets have acknowledged and are in prepared positions for the Hyperspace buoys. Raider Fleet has acknowledged, and is ready to come in right behind us." His Signal's officer droned out, her eyes glowing purple from the psionic power as she communed.

"All ships, prepare for Mass Relay Jump in sixty seconds." Winchell announced over the fleet comms. While all Alliance ships had the capabilities to use the Mass Relays, it was at best, inconvenient. As Hyperspace proved to be a much more efficient and versatile method, as well as using the relays was generally discouraged in the Alliance. High Command was at best reluctant to use an alien way of transportation such as the Mass Relays. There was just too much not known about for them to be relied upon.

However the possible applications of them particularly in their nearly instant transportation capabilities, meant that they remained useful in narrow situations, like trying to find an enemy territory that relied upon them.

"Prepare for Mass Relay jump in 5...4...3...2...1…" The ship's computer counted down, as Winchell held onto his chair. The ship shook slightly as it went interstellar, everyone holding onto something, even if it wasn't needed.

"Arrival in 3...2...1… Destination reached." Everyone released a breath held, the bridge once again became a hub of activity, the external vids came online and Winchell readied himself to lead an attack that would be written down in history as one of the most important engagements of the war; the first push for an alien stronghold since the Ethereal Invasion.

"Acquire targets, immediately, engage at will, and let none of them escape! Prepare all Xcom teams for combat!" Winchell ordered, watching the Vid screen as it relayed the position of a mere handful of ships and unfinished military installations, most of the ships were the relative scraps that had escaped the Eden Prime engagement..

"Firing solutions acquired, firing on nearest Turian vessel." The ship shook slightly as a several blue lasers shot out from the _Confido_ , hitting and annihilating the Turian Cruiser which had been unprepared for such an assault.

It appeared the Turians weren't expecting retaliation, or at least, not as fast as the attack that occurred now.

"All hostiles neutralized." The voice of the ship's AI reported. Literal seconds later.

"Excellent work, but no time for cheering, this was nothing but the scraps of what were left from the last engagement." Winchell declared

"Sir, you might want to see this." Reported Glen Trescott, the commander of the Xcom forces in one of the Turian installations said over a private connection.

"Anything useful?" Winchell said, non-chantingly.

"According to what we can understand, these 'Turians' are part of a bigger galactic community called 'The Citadel Council', which is essentially an Oligarchic Confederation of multiple species and independent planets. And the Turians are the military and peacekeeping arm of the big three in the organization" Winchell's face remained impassive before responding.

"Can we expect retaliation from this 'Council'?" Winchell inquired, his voice had hardened and the gears were turning in his head over what the Alliance could do against _several_ organized alien forces.

"Not likely sir, their main goal appears to be peace above all else, the Turians are the only ones in the entire council focused on military strength it seems." Winchell visibly loosened up a little bit at that. Only a little.

"And ship communiques from their flagship's logs indicate most of the fleet we were facing was called in an emergency alarm, like galaxy ending alarm, I wouldn't be surprised if their high command is still trying to figure out what is going on." Glen said, forcing Winchell to suppress a chuckle.

"And what's even better, they seemingly have a galactic trade and diplomatic hub called the 'Citadel' in which all of the species representatives called 'Councilors' meet and talk diplomacy." Winchell's face began to form a smile.

"We may never get another opportunity like this to display our might to this Citadel Council, not to mention the possibility of ending this war. Do we know where this Citadel Council is?" Winchell asked.

"The coordinate and route were one of the first things they gave." Glen said with a smile.

"Well, let's go and say hello then, make sure they know we have the biggest gun boats…"

 **2109 July 11th 5:30 PM Earth Time**

6:01 Eden Prime Time

 **Eden Prime Orbit, Species Alliance**

The Being drifted in Limbo, watching silently as the puny mortals reclaimed their planet from these 'Turians'. Ganus' ship had been captured by this 'Alliance'. A major setback yes, but not a permanently crippling one The Being had been forced to leave Ganus with no other choice left, abandoning him and his impure mind.

By now, the planet had been rid of the Turians presence and feeble attempts at pacification, the final holdouts wiped out not more than five minutes earlier. Such fragile and pathetic toys. However the Being would be back, yes, he would be back to find the Chosen one. And once he did, it would be glorious. ' _Yes, it shall be glorious!'_ The Uber Ethereal thought, disappearing without a trace.

Or so it thought.

 **2109 July 12th 9:50 AM Earth Time**

 **Citadel Tower, The Citadel**

Sparatus' mandibles flexed with agitation, as he and the other councilors stood before a crowd of of several Citadel species in the councilor's audience chamber. Turian, Asari, Salarian, Elcor, Hanar among others were present at the public press conference concerning the Relay 314 "incident". A gross understatement if anyone ever heard it.

Valern looked irritated, having to explain Sparatus' mistakes, often times vividly, to the public while Tevos kept a quiet poker face on.

"The Relay 314 Incident as many of you have heard of recently concerning Turian ship movement to dispatch some supposed pirates by Relay 314, has recently been exposed as a Turian cover up." Tevos began but was soon cut off by the crowd, mostly reporters, shouting questions at the councilors. Tevos waited patiently for the shouting to die down before continuing.

"In light of this recent reveal, we have decided to reveal the truth about this _disastrous_ event to the public." Tevos stated, glancing at the ashamed Turian councilor.

"Two days ago, A Turian patrol lead by Septus Paplianus was patrolling by a nearby Mass Relay dubbed Relay 314. Near this Mass Relay were several unknown Contacts, activating the Mass Relay. Septus' officers had already identified that this might be a new Race and that there were several ships with no detectable weapons. Despite this however, Septus opened fire on the new contacts. The patrol fleet killed off most of the presumably defensive warships while the 'civilian' ships got away. The patrol fleet led by Septus was heavily damaged by _lasers_ and _Plasma_ weaponry. The only reason the patrol fleet survived at all was because of their sheer numbers. After all of this happened, the Turians pressed onwards aggressively through the Relay and into the contact's colonies which the Turians. The small naval garrison present by the planet was assaulted illegally, delivering further serious damage to the Turian forces. The Turians led by Admiral Ganus Dardus, then proceeded to illegally orbitally bombard the colony, breaking several citadel treaties regarding first contact and rules of conduct for neutral worlds. And proceeded to land troops on the surface. While information is incomplete, Turian army forces in surrounding sectors were drawn into the illegal conflict through internal deception by Ganus, and Turian casualties on the planet from last reports have reached 50% dead or wounded, we have no knowledge of how heavy the contact's civilian or military casualties were, but we assume them to be catastrophic. That is where the last report ends, and presumably fighting is continuing even as we speak." Tevos let that sink into the stunned audience, a turian who had deceived tens if not hundreds of thousands of Turian soldiers, engaged in aggressive attacks against an unknown species illegally, and then the Turian government directly lying about the entire incident with a cover up claiming it was pirates. Each of those on their own were bombshells, and that wasn't getting to the point where the Alien's main armaments seemed to be laser and plasma weaponry, meaning who knew just how advanced and large the contact's empire was? Tevos continued..

"We have since then lost all contact with the Turian fleet with the last message sent by the Relay 314 observation post saying remnants of the turian fleet on the other side were returning nearly destroyed. Since then we have lost all contact with the post and we can only presume the aliens have proceeded to strike into council space. And now, we have what could be possibly the biggest political and diplomatic error in the history of the Citadel Council. Which if not handled correctly could very easily bring the in Council into a war not seen since the Krogan rebellions and the Rachni Wars-" That was as far as Tevos got before several screams and shouts forced her to stop short.

" _What are those ships?!"_

" _By the Spirits, look at the size of them!"_

" _There's hundreds of them!"_

" _They're transmitting something!"_

 **2109 July 12th 9:55 AM Earth Time**

 _ **SAV Confido**_ **, Citadel**

Winchell smirked, sitting comfortably in his command chair. The 'Citadel' was surrounded by alien warships of every kind, with a ten to one ratio of Civilian to military traffic. From the smallest tub boats to the largest dreadnoughts. Having control of all of the Alliance's non-defense orientated fleets had its perks. All of the Citadel military craft had dispersed into a defensive formation, and the civilians scattered since the Alliance's sudden arrival.

"Athena, could you hack into the station's systems and get us some information?" Winchell asked the ship's AI. The AI responded quickly.

"Unknown sir, attempting infiltrating now. Handshake protocols successful. It should take up to an hour for me to get serviceable data, as I suspect there to be much information with most of it in an unknown language and format." The AI responded, beginning to hack the Citadel.

"Transmit a verbal message to the Citadel on all channels, encrypted or not, and run it through our translator." Winchell told his communications officer who nodded and brought up the program on her view screens

"Ready sir." The officer said, looking at her screen intently.

"Peoples of the Citadel Council, I am Admiral Winchell Gaillard, speaking on behalf of the Species Alliance. We are here to demonstrate the power of our alliance against the aggression of the Turian Hierarchy. This is in response and retaliation of the Turians assaulting and destroying the _SAV Imperial_ in our own territory without warning, going further to attempt to destroy several civilian science vessels at the Eden Prime relay 48 standard hours ago."

Leaving a dramatic pause for all those listening, he didn't know if the contempt in his voice translated, but he made sure it had plenty of it, "The Turians had been unprovoked, and our ships had hailed the Turians repeatedly even before they were attacked. They then went and attacked one of our _minor_ colonies, destroying the small System defense fleet, killing some and wounding many of the relatively small militia on the planet. This very fleet then counter attacked and proceeded to show NO QUARTER to those who attacked our world. The fleet surrounding your 'Citadel' is but a small portion of our available forces that are even now running amok in your star systems, numbering _only_ in the thousands. We see the actions of the Turian Hierarchy as deliberate and premeditated act of war against our people, and as of the time of the act we are in a state of total warfare against you, and we will not stop attacking your empires until we have reached a peace agreement. If we truly wished to, we could have _destroyed this station_ with ease, and any and all civilian vessels around it _._ But instead, we believe it the more humane option to seek peace with the Turians and bring an end to this conflict." The communications officer nodded, and making sure to translate the full message to Turian Standard, sent it out to the Citadel blaring as loud as she could on all available channels.

For several minutes, nothing happened. The vessels around the station maintained their guard, scrambling to their positions, and Athena hacked into their comms networks and translated what she could, showing that the defense fleet had well and truly been shaken up by their arrival and threats. Since the dreadnoughts of ay fleet for the Council were precious resources and sources of pride, he directed the full firepower of 5 ships per dreadnought, so just in case of hostility he would annihilate them instantly and show his strength more clearly, and hopefully break the back of the Citadel's resistance.

"Message sir. Audio only, repeating at around one minute intervals. Shall I put it on speakers?" His comms officer asked.

"Play it." Winchell confirmed. The message began to play, in simple Turian.

"This is the _Asari_ councilor _Tevos_. It is our regret that this entire incident occurred and the proper punishments and who was responsible were being decided upon as you arrived… We thank you for your mercy, and impress upon you that this first contact is not representative of the Citadel Council's mission. We too wish for peace between our two empires." The transmission ended, while Winchell could explore the word choice, the limited words and language they had at their disposal meant that it had been remarkably well worded despite the lack of options and eloquence.

However the reply confirmed that Winchell's intimidation and bluffing worked. The speaker had a clear and concise voice so that it would be impossible to mishear the words spoken, she had remained calm to his ears, and it spoke of many years of experience in crisis. Winchell mused, smiling slightly. _'But words aren't everything.'_ Winchell thought, telling his communications officer to send another transmission.

"We demand an audience with you, this in nonnegotiable. We will land at this docking ring in 6 standard hours with a diplomatic delegation. Any attempt to spy, attack, coerce, or mentally influence the staff or the diplomat will have immediate consequences for those involved. I expect you to be prepared for our demands." Ending the open transmission, he ordered a quarantine of the system, and the disabling of their comm buoys after a 10 minute delay for the Council to send out orders to stand down to all its forces. They were to have the entire station and its fleet at gun point with no hope of calling for help or interference. As a show of power for the Species Alliance.

 **A/N: So there's the end of the chapter! Act: 1 is getting wrapped up with the negotiations in the next chapter, you can expect the next Act in about 1-2 chapters. The next Act will most likely feature exploration and the time before the Mass Effect Games, but I won't give anyway anything else. Anyway, I will be away at Scotland for 2-3 weeks with the family so I won't be doing much online. Actually, I probably won't be online at all. So this is the only chapter for a while (sorry). And yes, the 'Being' was the Uber Ethereal as by this point, everyone knew. And now, answering the reviews.**

 _HaywireEagle-_ Yes, I agree, the first few chapters are fairly cringe worthy. However, I get a lot better later on with the help of my Beta Bloodraven and practice. (Your second review)

Actually, not a bad story plot, right there. But I added those two franchises in the story because 1) I really liked those franchises 2)They'll be featured later on in the series.

 _Lightninghawk101-_ Thanks

 _Nevos-_ Thank you and I agree, I always wondered why Spartus wasn't verbally punished that much.

 _Blinded in a bolthole-_ Yeah, the first chapters were fairly bad. But I did get better in the latest chapters.

 _Major Simi-_ Thanks

 _Scottusa1-_ Thanks, I will

 _5 Coloured Walker-_ Thank you, your help is always appreciated and helps me become a better writer.


	9. Chapter 7: Act I Finale: War and Peace

**Hey everyone and welcome back to Xcom: Incursion! Last time, Eden Prime finally went back to the Species Alliance and freed from Turian occupation. The Xcom fleet that liberated the planet led by Winchell then went on to the other side of the Relay and destroyed the remaining Turians there. The Being was finally revealed to be the Uber Ethereal and the councilors debunked the Turian coverup of the Relay 314 incident. And then an Alliance armada surrounded the Citadel, forcing the Turians to agree to peace talks. And now we continue with the peace talks…**

 _ **You can't end negotiations unless you begin them. And you can't begin them if you continually negotiate about the terms to begin negotiations.**_

 _ **-Benjamin Netanyahu**_

 **2109 July 15th 4:00 PM Earth Time**

 **Citadel Docking Ring**

The three Councilors watched from a window seeing hundreds of tiny pinpricks of lights that were ships, put off by the fact that hundreds of alien warships had surrounded the Citadel itself and forced peace negotiations between them and the Turians. Not to mention they had nearly cut off all communications from outside Citadel Space.

While it was true Valern still had communications outside the system thanks to his STG connections, Sparatus had plenty of other ways of sending messages, and Tevos also had her ways. But the few paths of communication they had were insufficient to properly explain the threat that they had. If they were speaking the truth, which Tevos had no doubt in her mind that it was well within the realm of possibility even if they were wildly exaggerating, then it was more within their interests to simply talk than fight.

For the safety of everyone involved there was no public press, no civilians. Teams of Spectres with an army of C-Sec were making sure of that. Only the most level headed of Spectres were with them for protection, no Turian spectres as it was deemed they would be more likely to spark an incident by accident.

The three councilors were waiting, it had already been five standard minutes since they said they would arrive. It was unknown if it was a show of power making them wait, or if it was a genuine delay due to the distances involved.

"Councilors, the unknowns have a ship detaching, being escorted by 50 fighter craft and two corvettes. Should we hail?" The control tower asked.

"Are they broadcasting?" Valern requested.

"Not anything we can detect, but they're heading right for the docking bay they specified. The ship in the center of the formation appears to be unarmed." Control replied.

"Leave them be." Tevos ordered, with an affirmative click in her auditory canal.

As they saw the formation grow closer the fighters buzzed so close they could see their gun ports and missiles under their wings.

The corvettes flanking the transport looked to be a different design, painted purple and white, with menacing faces on the front.

The transport was Illium blue, the material of its outer shell looking like some strange crystalline material. It approached the docking bay, moving through the mass effect field that held in the atmosphere. Landing before them, it slowed to a stop and a green light emanated from below it.

Floating down in the light, a team of six soldiers ran out, as they secured the surrounding area. They peered over the cover, making the guarding spectres nervous.

A yell from one of the soldiers resulted in the soldiers forming two lines flanking the corridor that would lead them to the Councilors 50 meters away. It was only then that the diplomatic staff appeared, falling from the green light like the soldiers, the variety of species was almost astounding.

The leader among them, the one at the front was what had been identified as Human. The Human female looked almost identical in facial structure to an asari, having only long black hair on her head, tied into a braid, and brownish skin.

The group she led was trailed by a huge muscular creature fitted in robes, perhaps even bigger than a krogan. This was followed by another humanoid whose skin was a light shade of red and it had a mouth slit in vertical instead of horizontal. They were all dwarfed by the very tall and thin creature near the rear, its entire body covered in rich crimson robes and its head encased by an impassive mask. The smallest of them all, hunched over on the ground wearing face masks themselves, walking on all four limbs, they were dressed in skin tight suits, which showed just how emancipated and frail they appeared. To the rear of the Human stood a gray humanoid, appearing to be a mix of Human and reptilian, embroiled in several robes of varying color. At the very end trailing the group was a walking platform, upon four spider like legs as it kept pace.

They reached a distance of five meters away from the council, their six guards dressed in bright white and red, with purple decals along their armor, their helmets painted in the same design as the face on the corvettes. They held in their hands advanced weapons the likes which the Council Races had never yet witnessed.

The Human stepped forward two meters, proudly. Shimmering armor of unknown material to the Council Races could be seen under the white and red robes that she wore around her shoulders.

"I am ambassador Anita Goyle of the Species Alliance. I have been dispatched to come to a peace agreement with the Turian Hierarchy and its allies. There will be no dallying or politicking. My purpose is clear and simple."

Tevos looked in her peripherals to her colleagues, Spartus remained upright and unimpressed. Valern his eyes shaded, looked on. "I am councilor Tevos."

"I am Councilor Valern."

"I am Councilor Sparatus." The last councilor, the Turian, stood straight and seemingly radiated power.

Goyle half bowed to them, politely, but she locked eyes with each.

"Let me introduce my entourage then. Battle-Emissary Ulg'Han of the Muton tribes. After him is Diplomat Jerome Kettinger of the Zudjari Harmony. My chief advisor Lenich Kirya of the Ethereal Commune and his two Sectoid assistants. Behind me is Nephollio, representative of the Volm Union. Finally my personal assistant, and representative of the Silicon Uniformity, Aria. She is currently communication through the holographic platform due to safety concerns due to the station's infrastructure."

Tevos nodded slightly, "We welcome you all to the Citadel. We are deeply sorry for the actions of the Turian Hierarchy and-"

"Do not apologize. We know who is responsible after further interrogation of Admiral Ganus. He was not in full control of his faculties. But be warned. This will only lessen the demands we have." Goyle interrupted, looking stern.

"Shall we get to someplace with seats? Or will we make a momentous negotiation standing in a hanger?" Tevos asked slightly amusingly.

"I've come prepared with chairs if you wish to conduct it here." Goyle replied dryly.

"Then let me lead you to our council chambers..." Tevos led the Species Alliance ambassadors to the Citadel Tower, there was no tour, no celebrations, no interruptions, lives were on the line. Soon they were in the Councilors Chambers where the Alliance ambassadors were soon facing up to the three Councilors on their podiums.

Anita looked at her space and frowned, stepping back she allowed the four legged machine to assume her position, then it began to emit some kind of energy field around it. "Thank you Aria." Anita said as she stood on a 1 meter disc of energy which raised her up so that she was level with the councilors, a chair forming behind her, she sat down. There were more ways than words to insult those who you disliked.

"Shall we begin?" Valern inquired. Anita nodded.

"Yes. As I said before, there will be no politicking, and we'll be straight to the point, I believe that since the Turian that started this has been punished, we shall resolve this issue with no further incidents. It goes without saying that we all want to resolve this conflict, the only thing left to do is state our demands and set our borders." Anita said, looking level in the eyes with the councilors, not in the least worried about her safety or their power.

"Yes, that seems like the best course of action." Tevos said, nodding. Sparatus said nothing but was obviously agitated.

"Yes, what are your demands?" Sparatus asked, barely hanging onto his calm tone. Anita glanced at Sparatus before bringing up her new Omni-tool, designed to match the Council Race's own. A holographic image soon projected itself from the device, a bird's eye view of the Galaxy. Anita enlarged the image with a few commands so everyone in the Chamber could see.

Within a few moments, several areas shaded itself, a blue area surrounding the core of the Galaxy and the area around it to the west. The Blue area took up about half of the entire Galaxy, stretching from the Galactic core to the edge of the outer arm in the 'East' of the Galaxy. Next another area shades itself, overlapping entirely with the Blue, a brown area in the 'North' which formed the eastern borders of the blue area and reached to the outer arm, not nearly as large as the blue area however. Next a grey area in the south, which stretched from the blue area to the outer arms of the 'southern' portion of the Galaxy, taking up about a fifth of the Galaxy, larger than the brown area but not as big as the blue area. Next a vibrant red covered the rest of the galaxy, overlapping significantly with the Grey.

"The blue area near the center of the Galaxy is your official territory, the brown area in the North the Batarians, the Southern grey is the Species Alliance and where we wish to expand, and the western portion is either unexplored or what you call the Terminus systems." The territory that she had claimed was mostly uninhabited, and was actually a ruse, it would take them centuries to expand there in any great number, but it served as a useful buffer. As well as territory to eventually open up "Trade Ports" with the council.

"We find these borders acceptable." Tevos stated, glancing at the other Councilors who nodded in agreement. There were no colonies in the region they had claimed, and it took a significant chunk out of the terminus systems, meaning they could implant spies and watch them fight with little threat to themselves

"Good." Anita said, minimizing the image of the Galaxy.

"Next, our demands for reparations. We will require both raw materials to rebuild our colony, and insurance that this will _never_ happen again. If any of our colonies are attacked, it matters not who sponsored the pirates the raiders or the mercenaries, we will hold the original government of the attackers at fault. Keep this in mind, we will tolerate no shit from any of you or anyone else." Anita stated, looking to Sparatus. Sparatus nodded reluctantly.

"Yes, we should be able to provide all of that." Spartus said. Anita nodded again.

"Good, I will transfer the information to your Omni-tools. Keep this in mind, We are still evaluating the damage done to our colony, so the price may rise or fall." She explained, pointing her Omni-tool towards Sparatus. Within a second, the information was transferred to their Omni-tools, making a small beeping sound as it completed.

Grumbling, Sparatus looked up, "This is insane! The Hierarchy could _never_ afford this kind of demand! Several _hundred trillion_ credits worth of raw materials! For one colony that couldn't have broke a billion people? What is your infrastructure made of? Solid platinum?!" Sparatus cried out, glaring at Anita. The Human in question just chuckled, slightly bemused.

"Scroll down. You'll see that 99% of the total is made of Civil lawsuits by the colony itself for damages, both material and psychological, these are just the initial demands by the claimants. I should also add it is Human tradition to demand absurd sums of money for such lawsuits. I should also add, your credit is substantially inflated, an SA Credit is worth significantly more than Citadel credits, so we translated the damages in our money to yours. Also you will have to remember that our technology is _far_ more advanced than yours. Besides, you don't have to pay it all at once, and the independent commission is still tallying up the total cost, you also have the ability to represent yourself in our legal system where you will defend yourself against all the claimants. If you cannot provide a lawyer a lawyer will be provided to you." Sparatus' mandibles flexed in outrage. The smile on Anita grew larger. "Just think, if the war continued for a day longer on the ground, that number could have jumped 10 or 20 percent alone! And with the damage our raider fleets are performing on your economy, no doubt it will be harder for every hour we negotiate.

Sparatus grumbled in anger, his flanges flaring outward in an obvious move of annoyance and anger, "We will have to run this by our economic advisors, We cannot finalize this until then. But we accept to pay reparations and provide a public apology."

"Good choice Councilor. Now, if there is nothing else that we need to discuss here councilors? Please keep in mind, every minute we waste with triviality, is another minute our forces assail your militaries." Tevos looked at Valern who nodded.

"There is still one matter we would like to offer you as part of the peace accord, for the Species Alliance to establish an embassy on the Citadel and become a Council species-"

"No." Anita cut off, her tone as cold as ice.

"The Species Alliance _will not_ join the Citadel." Anita finished, shocking the Councilors.

"But a species that has come into Council space has _never_ refused a position like this!" Tevos exclaimed, shock still evident in her voice.

"What does the term Species Alliance mean to you? We're a federation of species that probably outnumber your own alliance in diversity. Unless you're willing to give each and every single one of us a council seat with equal say, then we have no reason to join with you in a political alliance for the time being." Anita explained, bored. But not in an insulting tune.

"You would have all the advantages of being a council species." Valern informed, keeping his cool. If a nation like the Species Alliance was allowed to run around the Galaxy, not closely watched by the Citadel species, there's no telling _what_ they could do.

"What advantages, _Councilors?_ The Alliance has been an independent polity for nearly a century, been in three, now _four_ hostile first contacts with unknown factions, and have been more than able to sustain ourself long before we made first contact with the Turians. Why should it be any different now? We have proven our military strength, we are independent, we would never bow to your alliance just because you asked! And most certainly not if it would be the Turians who would be 'keeping the peace' in our territory! If I agreed to such measures I would be lynched on the spot you see me in by my own advisors." Valern, to Tevo's experienced eye, was about to open his mouth to make a counter point, but instead made no comment. Anita continued none the wiser;

"Would we get the same recognition that the Hanar, Volus, Elcor, and many other races have received? The Hanar provide their unique religion and society while the Volus single handedly built AND sustains the Citadel economy. However they receive almost no credit whatsoever, they most certainly deserve the spot on the Council seat more than anyone else, including us, and for centuries too, yet you have failed to do so for this entire time. What chance would the people I represent have for receiving an equal say in galactic politics? Zero, you're an oligarchy, and its one step away from authoritarianism. The Species Alliance does not want that. And that goes without mentioning the leash the Alliance would be on, limiting our production of ships and releasing the secrets of our technology." Anita raised a hand ro forestall any reply, "We know the danger of being a hostile secret keeper and not the benevolent teacher. And I assure you, that to foster positive relations we will be taking up your offer on an embassy, a real embassy between two foreign powers, and I hope sincerely, to build a relationship over decades that will make sure our two publics and come to peaceable agreements." The Councilors said nothing. It would be foolish to think the human Ambassador would sign a deal without first examining all viewpoints, and they had obviously sent one of their best for exactly that reason.

"If there is something else that needs to be discussed…?" Tevos asked, looking at the room of ambassadors. No one said anything.

"Very well, at this time, the Species Alliance and the Turian Hierarchy are now at peace, all hostilities are to cease immediately."

-Codex/Reports-

 **Species Alliance Elite Guard-** The Alliance's Elite Guards are only used when absolutely necessary, the best of the best of Xcom and the Alliance military, matched only in power and skill by Asari Commandos. Their numbers have never numbered past the double digits, but even so they are incredibly deadly. The operatives are required to either be skilled in Psionics or Physici. Their extended training after they are hand picked through the most rigorous screenings, spans years and are trained in the most deadly and difficult environments known to the Alliance, from having to survive on planets covered in molten rock and lava too surviving in frozen and desolate wastelands of Ice Planets for weeks. They are the deadliest force the Alliance has (save for Xcom), the operatives are of Legend among the public and general soldiery, the mere invitation to join them is considered a mark of prestige and as likely as winning the lottery. One famous engagement is of an Elite Guard facing down a Thresher Maw on foot and surviving to tell the tale. They are dressed in bright red and white, purple decals and white and purple helmets, their identity forever unknown to the public. They carry with them the most powerful weapons known to the Alliance public. And it is assumed they are armed and equipped to the most high of standards.

 **Official Citadel Council Report of the Species Alliance- First Week after the end of hostilities**

 **By: Asari Councilor Tevos**

 **Threat Level (Non-existent, Small, Omnipresent, Normal, High, Dangerous, Extreme, Galaxy Ending): Extreme- Mass Produced Plasma and Laser weaponry, AI, above tech level of every single Citadel Member, Illegal genetic modifications , isolationist, paranoid of Citadel and Council.**

 **Notes and Observations:**

 **Caution: report is merely preliminary and is currently incomplete**

 **The Species Alliance was first encountered by Relay 314 and had a hostile first contact with the Turian Hierarchy, initiating the Turian-Alliance First Contact War which claimed thousands of both Turian and Alliance lives. (Estimated human Fatalities 3,500, Known Turian Fatalities in war's course 76,000, Non aligned/civilian casualties 12,000)**

 **The aftermath of the War resulted in an Alliance 'victory'. The Turian Hierarchy was sent reeling from the damage and disorganization it was sustaining, unprepared for the coming war, wanting to avoid more bloodshed and avoid total capitulation. It has been a standard week (10 human days) since the end of the hostilities, and the Species Alliance has as expected already shown signs of isolationism and paranoia towards the Citadel Council. This is to be expected, as they are trying to regroup their military and protect themselves from any possible retaliatory strikes. These are only the forces we can detect at Relay 314, and may not in fact be indicative of any abnormal behaviour, more experience with them is required to make any concrete affirmations.**

 **Their borders are heavily guarded and it is virtually impossible for Council Ships to enter their space. Being only a week after the end of hostilities, this is hardly surprising, and the alliance captains have proved more than professional in their conduct on the border, as they are in the midst of returning captured POWs and civilians, while also regrouping and reorganizing.**

 **We, the Citadel species can't much blame the Species Alliance for their paranoia however, as this has been their fourth hostile contact in a little more than a century. Their speed of progress and skill at reverse engineering technology is incredible, surpassing all of the Citadel Races.**

 **The Alliance's population has become increasingly diverse over time, only 40% of the population is the 'main' species, Humans, Mankind, etc. The next most populous species, Zudjari, are estimated to be about 30% of the population. And the Ethereal Species (which is made up of a variety of different species), and Volm species take up the last 30%; 20% and 10% respectively. It should be noted that the Volm, like the Quarians, are a migratory species, that lived mainly in fleets of starships, trying to reclaim their homeworld from a deadly force, the only difference was that the Volm were fighting another Organic species called the 'Espheni'.**

 **Because of this diversity in the Species Alliance, many ideologies clash. While I'm working off incomplete and preliminary information from Ambassador Goyle, there are two major rival factions, EXALT (who wishes to see non-Humans, particularly the Ethereals, rule over everything in a sort of military dictatorship), and Cerberus (Entirely Human, their goal is to eradicate all alien life. It should be noted that with the Turian Contact war, Cerberus has grown slightly in strength and power in the Species Alliance). We have been warned to be aware of possible EXALT incursion in the Turian Hierarchy, but we are confident Cerberus will remain solely within Human territory as a huge bounty is on any information on their whereabouts, and it would be nearly impossible for them to hide in the Terminus systems for any length of time.**

 **Despite Ambassador Goyle's hostility and aggressive posturing and tactics, she has proven more than willing to cooperate and talk with us and has even suggested possibilities of an eventual permanent Defensive Treaty. Over all we need more information before committing to a diplomatic Doctrine.**

 **/Proper ID needed to access file/**

 **/ID accepted, accessing file now/**

 **Species Alliance- Xcom First Contact Report**

 **By: *Classified***

 **Threat Level of Turian Hierarchy: Omnipresent**

 **Threat Level of Citadel Council: Dangerous (Buildup and remedial training of military forces suggested)**

 **Notes:**

 **Political Decision making and Diplomatic agreements have not been finalize**

 **Subject to change at any time**

 **The Alliance, as of writing this report, has not had a hostile contact in nearly forty years, allowing for a major surge of colonization.**

 **With the encounter of the Citadel Council and Turian Hierarchy, everything has seemingly changed. We now have competition for star systems near Mass relays, future possible wars fought in space, and a new need for ambassadors and soldiers. With this development, the Alliance will need to be at all times on military guard until further notice.**

 **Since the news of the Citadel Council, recruitment and temporary reenlistment has skyrocketed by over fifty percent, and defensive installations on Eden Prime's moons and orbit have already began. We, the Alliance, have been isolated so long with no other political entity with competition that we were ill experienced for this kind of situation. Despite the government's best attempts to calm down the public, it has only worked with minimal effect, with more and more citizens every day looking at the Citadel races rather… Xenophobically. This trend is estimated to die down substantially once casualty reports are released and we show that they are nothing to be afraid of as friends. Acts of war always produce such reactions, however we are looking into possible subliminal propaganda implanted by Cerberus agents, such behaviour is abnormal in baseline humans.**

 **Work on analyzing the Turians ship wreckages and biology is thoroughly underway in the labs, and we have hundreds of captured Citadel style ships and hundreds of thousands of tons of captured goods, equipment, and other miscellaneous items. We have been able to reproduce a small shield not unlike Turian shields for more than twenty minutes. This was trivially easy as Turian's were entirely uninterested in equipment destruction during their rapid rout and surrender. Of course, the experimental shields, referenced as Kinetic Barriers, can at the moment only block projectiles that use Kinetic force to inflict damage. No matter how we may modify the basics of the shield, its very design and underlying principles make it impossible to be useful against Laser weapons, but plasma weapons can have the possibility of being diffused with the right sensitivity and settings. This would only be of use against our own military, so we are moving the project over to Xcom to ensure secrecy from any Cerberus, Exalt, or Citadel spies.**

 **Now, the Turian biology. They appear Avian in nature and physiology with potential for Physci but no Psionics. We put several captured Turians, unconscious, in the Psi labs. None reported anywhere near Positive. All except of course Admiral Ganus. He is currently being held in a medical coma, but he has proven more than eager to tell us everything that happened to him and we have not needed to resort to more unsavory measures. He has proven sincerely regretful of his actions. During the Psionic's test, his Brain had a small trace of Psionics, and while the trace was small and faded, we could tell that Ganus had been mind controlled and forced against his own will to do something, and whoever did this was an extremely powerful Psionic. Of course the first thing we did was ask if any of our operatives could have done this, and the answer was a simple 'no'. And according to our findings and our operatives in the field, these Turians have no knowledge of Psionics. So the question that still remains is: Who mind Controlled Ganus and why?**

 **Ganus' own debriefing has proven invaluable but ultimately incomplete and erratic. Our theories have ranged far and wide to a secret alien hive mind being operating from the shadows, or perhaps interdimensional entities meddling with our reality for whatever reasons. However after an Ethereal expert examined Ganus he suggested that it only an Ethereal mind could do such an action the most likely perpetrator would be the Uber Ethereal, but this is considered equally as unlikely as the other possibilities as it was destroyed almost a century by now. Why only come back now? Possible unknown Psionic potential in the Espheni? The prelude to a second Espheni attack? Unlikely but we need to consider all the possibilities.**

 **It has only been 10 days since the official end of the war, and we will soon have to decide on whether to terminate, return, or preserve Admiral Ganus. I will be suggesting a false move for a criminal trial of Ganus, have him "Executed" then depending on how negotiations with the Citadel Council go, decide to inform them of the actual decision then.**

 _5 coloured Walker-_ I agree, the last chapter was a little rushed as I was rushing to get the chapter done before I left for Scotland. Otherwise, thank you for your review and help.

 _aDarkOne-_ No, this is not a fur stomp Humanity f*ck yeah story. I'm trying to put the Humans on even terms as the Citadel Council overall. And that last chapter was Xcom defeating a Turian fleet that had already engaged a previous Alliance fleet. And yes, Xcom is a bit powerful in this fic as Xcom is the Alliance's ultimate trump card against the Council.

Beta Reader: It's kinda expected in an Mass Effect/Xcom fanfic that in the beginning Xcom is going to be kicking the Citadel's ass if it comes to blows. A big if. Thankfully we plan on avoiding mass warfare for the time being.

 _gooddragonking-_ Thanks! :)

 **A/N: Remember to review and let me hear your guy's thoughts on Act 1 and the chapter!**

 **A/N: And that's that, the Alliance is now officially at peace with the Turian Hierarchy, thus rapping up Act 1. This chapter was a little short as it was just the negotiations but hopefully the Codexes will make up for that. Act 2 will take place before the Mass Effect games and ten years after the First Contact War, following an elite team of explorers made up of Citadel and Alliance species as they explore the Terminus systems and previously unknown portions of the Galaxy. The chapters in Act 2 should be much, much longer once the ball gets rolling and exploration actually starts getting on. Just imagine Act 2 sort of being like Star Trek or Stargate, focusing on exploration and the story instead of action unlike Act 1 which really focused in on the first contact war.**


	10. Chapter 8: Act II: Destiny

**Hey everyone and welcome to the second Act of Xcom: Incursion! Long time no see, eh? Anyway, this Act will be about the storyline and plot rather than the action and gunfights. I'll include my more… creative ideas, thoughts and whatnot into this act as it spawned this story in the first place. But you'll find more about that as the chapter proceeds. This Act I estimate will be about 10-20 chapters long if not longer. The chapters themselves will be much longer and informational compared to the first act- I hope. But without further ado, the chapter. But first, I've set up a mini-timeline to explain what happened in between of the first act and this one. And secondly, if you didn't know before, there's a sidestory to this bridging the gap between this Act and the last one. I recommend you read it, though you don't have too to understand what's happening.**

 **Timeline set from first contact to present day**

 **2109 July 15th- The First Contact war between the Species Alliance and the Turian Hierarchy officially ends. All hostilities cease immediately and the the galactic community welcomes the Species Alliance. The Alliance replies by building defensive structures along their border with the Hierarchy, increased recruiting and the building of warships. This followed up by a huge Alliance population boom. An Alliance-Council Cold War ensues.**

 **2110 January 1st- The Species Alliance celebrate the New Year with the establishment of several new colonies on the border of Terminus space. To ensure the safety of the colonies and to expand, Alliance forces begin to engage Terminus pirates and bandits. The Council watches closely as Terminus pirates and outlaws clash with Alliance forces. It is a one sided slaughter as Alliance forces begin to clear out the 'filth', clearing a new way for Alliance expansion. The Batarian Hegemony condemns these actions, claiming they're upsetting the balance of the Terminus they work so hard to achieve.**

 **2110 January 7th- The Alliance establishes a permanent embassy on the Citadel who finalizes the peace deal between the Species Alliance and Turian Hierarchy.**

 **2110 March 11th- A small fleet of Batarian slavers try their luck at raiding an outlying Alliance colony. The colony's few defenses on the ground hold out long enough for military aid to reach the colony. The Batarian slavers who stayed to fight are all but destroyed. Alliance officials threaten all-out war on the Batarian government and rally the public's support to their cause. War is only avoided by severe Citadel Council intervention and the President's assurance that the Alliance public would have their revenge. The Alliance begins to secretly ship arms and supplies to Batarian rebels and insurgents, bolstering the Batarian rebel's capabilities.**

 **2116 March 17th- The Salarians begin to test their own laser weapons more thoroughly to try and match Human technologies. No real progress is made as they simply cannot get a small enough powersource or heat absorbing materials. They come up with a prototype only usable by Krogan and can fire a few shots before melting or exploding.**

 **2120 August 24th- A major city on the Batarian colony of Camala explodes in flames, claiming millions of lives. Rumors start circulating that the Batarian government was responsible for the explosion. A secret file is then leaked by a major Batarian hacker organization, claiming that the incident was caused by a secret Batarian weapon, unleashed on the city to test its effects on live subjects. The government denies any of this. However after centuries of political and social repression, much of the Batarian public ignores these claims of innocence or is apathetic. Protesting in the lower castes begins and the Batarian law enforcement respond with lethal force, much to the sanctions of the Citadel council and the Systems Alliance. The Batarian Rebels take this opportunity as a** _ **Casus Belli**_ **to declare war. Many lower caste Batarians join the revolution, and the largest civil war since the Krogan Rebellions begins. The Rebels are extremely well armed and initial reports find that the Citadel Council is the most likely offender, with only recently discovered and stolen documents bought from the Shadow Broker implicating the Alliance being the primary suppliers.**

 **2122 October 13th- More Hegemony documents are leaked revealing extensive probing and illegal genetic testing on unaware lower castes and slaves by the Batarian government. The Batarian Civil War begins officially as Batarian Rebel Commandos storm the Khar'shan Hegemonic Palace, killing many government officials. Aggressive takeovers, both civil and corporate begin, and rioting takes place all over Batarian space. The Batarian government declares martial law and closed their borders to all outsiders. Loyal Batarian ships, now barely a quarter in number, orbitally bombard rebel positions and cities, the few reports that reach the Council's ears tell of civilian casualties in the billions. The Citadel Council does nothing as the civil war rages on. The Alliance is quick to support the rebels, claiming the Citadel Council is too cowardly to risk their safe lives for the sake of others. The Council species are incensed, but face civil unrest of their own after the accusations; demands are made that the Alliance not directly intervene. The Alliance complies, providing only logistical and economic support.**

 **2123 April 9th- Two years after the beginning of the war, and the Rebels are publically seen as losing the war. Alliance records indicate the Hegemony has faced severe depopulation of their slaves and lower castes, having nearly a fifth of all Batarian civilians killed or in concentration camps. Most rebel worlds have been captured and the rebel armies have been reduced to terrorist actions or guerilla warfare. The damages to the Batarian economy and infrastructure are catastrophic, with the Batarian Hegemonic fleet reduced to a shadow of its former glory as internecine warfare has resulted in nearly 75% of all original ships destroyed and large segments of the Shipbuilding industry either sabotaged or purposefully destroyed to prevent capture by either side. But now the Hegemony has the upper hand as they hire huge number of foreign mercenaries and slaver fleets, with order to enslave entire planets if need be to reclaim the numbers necessary for their society to survive. This angers all neighboring factions, most especially the Alliance, the Citadel, and the Terminus Kingdoms, as the fighting finally spills over into their territory as these mercenary armies claim Rebels are hiding in the border regions, using the opportunity to loot and pillage the planets. It is then the Alliance formally declares war on the Hegemony in its weakened state. A strike force of several hundred Alliance vessels is sent to raid Khar'Shan and bring their declaration of war personally. The entire Batarian home fleet is annihilated in anchorage or in battle. The Batarian Navy is no longer an entity as the rest of the Batarian ships defect or desert.**

 **2125 December 3rd- The Rebel and Alliance forces rapidly invade hundreds of planets with overwhelming force, met as liberators and enemy armies largely surrendering without a fight. The last of the Batarian forces concentrate in the Home cluster, particularly on the colony of Erszbat. A major assault on the planet is slated for the 1st day of the next year.**

 **2126 January 1st- The assault on Erszbat commences, the assault phase of the battle last only 48 hours, millions of lives are lost in that time period and general Batarian Hegemony resistance is shattered in that time period. Within a week, the planet is firmly in Alliance and rebel hands. The remaining forces loyal to the government continue the civil war in guerilla warfare. However it is rather short lived as Alliance forces prosecute a ruthless anti insurrection and Guerrilla campaign, millions more Batarians are executed or imprisoned as sympathizers or participants. Leniency is given to Batarians who turn themselves in before they are found. With the old government gone, the Alliance establishes a new democratic provincial government in its place to begin rebuilding, while simultaneously annexing the whole of Batarian space under their protection as an autonomous state. The Council protests this, but the huge Batarian backlash at their own hypocrisy, starting the war but not ending it decisively in the name of freedom. Since Council space became a prime place for Batarian refugees to escape the war, many of the border worlds are on the verge of riots at the Council's decree. Reluctantly, before the Alliance can formulate an official response, they retract their statements and tentatively welcome the new Batarian government, the United Batarian Systems. The Batarian Government only stiffly returns the gesture, with many Batarians still incensed at the Council for seemingly starting the war and allowing it to drag on.**

 **2127 March 29th- The United Batarian Systems receives an embassy with the Citadel Council as a foreign power, like the Species Alliance. The Alliance is pleased whilst the Council expresses their disappointment and concern for the future of the Batarian people as subservient to the Alliance.**

 **2128 January 11th- Salarians unveil the next generation in GARDIAN laser technology, remaining the same range as their previous generation GARDIANs at ~20 Kilometers, but now much more reliable than previous generations. The weapon in question is still in its experimental stages but it signifies the beginning of better Salarian laser tech.**

 **2128 September 18th- Alliance archeologists searching for lost Prothean artifacts on the edge of the Terminus systems discover a system littered with wreckages of ancient ships thousands of years old. Study of the system and wreckages commences immediately.**

 **2130 August 21st- The Destiny Project is re-activated.**

" _ **Exploration is what you do when you don't know what you're doing."**_

 _ **-Neil deGrasse Tyson**_

 **Act II: Destiny**

 **2130 September 23rd 1:00 PM Earth Time**

 **Classified facility orbiting Outpost Bismarck, Alliance Space**

Jesep Lannern was a simple man, born on the Alliance colony of New Landing and

raised on an orbiting space station, he didn't grow up hearing the sounds of other humans but those of machines. New Landing had been a colony of Terra Nova, before it became part of the Alliance, evident by the fact that 80% of the colony's population was at least half synthetic in nature.

At this moment, he was reviewing several documents detailing the final candidates for

the first crew of the now re-activated Destiny Project. The Destiny Project, created in the mid to late 21st century was a special ops unit for exploration and research. It was ultimately shut down however as the Espheni war began and funding was diverted to the conventional military budget.

But now with the Turian-Alliance war over, and a subsequent population boom for all

species of the Alliance, it was time for them to once again look outward, beyond its own borders. The destiny project consisted of the best of the best, with no exceptions. It needed to be, they had no idea what they might find out there. For this reason, it would be a joint effort between the Alliance itself and the rest of the galaxy, despite some politicians and higher ups arguing against it.

Another reason for this decision was to diffuse tensions around the galaxy; seeing as

the scars of the last war left lasting wounds, neither public opinion of one another wasn't very high. The project had been revealed to the public just last week, and was widely praised among the galactic community. Both EXALT and Cerberus had denounced the project of course, but they were fringe organizations, and no one in the general public considered them an entity to consider.

A ringing from his Omni-tool resulted in Jesep bringing it up, Mrs. Luna, his secretary and the residential AI. He accepted the call and a holographic picture of a cyberdisc appeared.

"Mr. Lannern, the final candidates are awaiting briefing in the meeting room, I advise

you to go and see them." Lannern nodded at the holograph.

"Understood, thank you Luna." The cyberdisc dipped it's body in response and closed the holographic call. Lannern closed his eyes and sighed briefly, leaning back into his chair. _This is it._ He thought. _The moment I've been waiting for._

 **2130 September 23rd 1:10 PM Earth Time**

 **classified facility orbiting Bismarck's Outpost, Alliance Space**

Over a million candidates had been chosen for the Destiny Project. But only a few hundred could be accepted as the first few crewmen to the Destiny Project's first ship _._

The room, despite being the largest auditorium for the Outpost, was still too small for the less than five hundred persons within. Everyone had been given a paper binder with their names on it to read over while everyone was assembled and the last measures finished. Everyone also had a seat, and while this was a very secret meeting, the entire station was under constant surveillancemeaning one never had any real privacy. On the bright side, it didn't mean they'd have been cramped in this room without the ability to get a drink of water or use the restroom.

The room was a dull tan color with painted speakers set across the side so small even his enhanced vision had trouble picking them out. In the front of the room stood a wooden podium on a stage raised by a meter, with only a pair of naval military police standing on either side of the stage in a relaxed manner.

Nisky Phoenix, captain of the _SAV Wolf,_ had been chosen to be one of the lucky few to be on the _DPS unity,_ the first ship for the project. It hadn't been easy, forced to go through nearly a week's worth of paperwork and extensive testing to even be considered. Nisky was forty two and had served on multiple ships of the Alliance before coming to the Destiny Project. He had been all around space and knew it's many rules and regulations. He had a lean build from living in space for so long as well. Not even modern gravity generators could match a real gravity well and therefore, anyone who lived in space for an extended amount of time was sure to lose a bit of bone mass. Nisky was a Volm, and therefore was welcome to space and its contents, his species having lived primarily in space long before they joined the Alliance.

The Volm had been fleeing their enemies, the Espheni, for thousands of years before they found the Alliance. The Alliance had offered them shelter where others had turned them away, making the Volm deeply grateful. Volm, even now mostly lived in space, many serving in the Alliance navy.

Phoenix sat in one of the hundred chairs in that room, patiently waiting. Waiting for what exactly he was still unsure of, as he intently read the paper binder given to him in Alliance Standard English. Although judging that they gave him a psionic scrubbing to ensure his identity, it must be serious. From what he did know, that this was the Destiny Project, an exploration expedition, he couldn't imagine what exactly he'd be told today, enemies far off and unknown? Secrets of military nature? Maybe the project was a cover for a secret weapon's program made to possibly go to the next stage of development?

To his right sat a human male, flipping out a lighter and subsequently lighting a

cigar. This made Nisky almost violently angry as he snatched the fat cigar for the man's lips and stubbed it out immediately, supported by the equal anger of everyone around him who looked at him murderously. "FIRST RULE OF SPACE TRAVEL: YOU NEVER LIGHT A FIRE OFF PLANET!" His neighbor berated him furiously, another man of stouter build and a bullet like head with no neck, the thick bands of muscle he had on his biceps showed him to be a high gravity world native who had joined the Alliance Marines judging from the tattoo of a falcon holding an anchor. The man who had lit the cigar was dressed in a black trench coat and faded tan slacks, topped off with a pair of tinted glasses. An odd combination, especially the tinted glasses. Phoenix couldn't help but stare agape at the man's idiocy, and at the odd clothes, the style foreign to him. And right now he was associating "Foreign" with "Not knowing even the basic safety regulations on a space station or starship".

The man noticed Phoenix's onlooking and grinned a toothy grin, despite the fact that everyone had a look on their face that they wanted his ass dead. Leaning back as if he didn't care, he puffed a smoke ring from the single mouth full he got, glancing at Phoenix. Specifically the cigar in his hand, "Enjoying the view?" He asked with a hint of what Phoenix believed to be an Australian accent. Phoenix looked up at the taller man. Even in their seats, the man was several inches taller than himself.

"Names Jones Dunlop. But I prefer Dunlop." He said with another wink behind his glasses.

Phoenix ignored him, before saying quietly,"Nisky. Nisky Phoenix, people tend to just call me Phoenix. What's with the getup?" Phoenix asked bluntly. Dunlop smiled slyly again. He must have been asked this quite often.

All of a sudden, the soldiers on the stage stood at attention and saluted, all eyes turned to the front as the cal for attention was given, all the military personnel, including Nisky himself stood at attention. A Human male walked to the podium, he was dressed in an unfamiliar uniform, it looked similar to the standard Citadel dress fatigues, and the Alliance's dress uniform.

The man was tall and lanky, towering over the guards that saluted him. He had white hair and steel in his eyes, which gazed over the crowd. But that wasn't the most peculiar feature, half of the man's face was simply made out of a metal mask or prosthetic. The left of his face was a normal dark brown but the right of his face metal plates began at his nose. Only his eyes remained the same on both sides.

"Hello, my name is Director Jesep Lannern. As some of you may already know, I am the director of the Destiny Project. You have all been chosen because you are the best of the best, with no exception. Any criminal records any of you may harbored have been forgiven or ignored in favor of your skills. Consider this a fresh start for you all. Now, I know most of you have read your folders, but in any case: Any questions before we move on?" He asked. Nobody said anything.

"Good, now I don't have to explain that we're all adults here, you're also working in a military environment, word of fights, both personal and job related will not be tolerated. You're the best of the best, act like it.," Jesep said."You all will be working on the _DPS Unity_ ," The wall behind him lit up, and showed the image of the ship. It rotated on the screen, giving everyone a good look of it. The ship itself had a cigar like shape with a flat surface at the back, where the four propulsion units were located. As it rotated, the crew could see it had two main guns on each side of the ship, laser cannons from what Phoenix could extrapolate.

On it's right side, it bore the name _DPS Unity_ , painted in dark red on the black exterior of the ship. The image changed to show the inside compartments, the bridge, living spaces and hallways. Only a select few rooms were shaded black, secrets that even they weren't exposed to know just yet, no doubt.

"Remember, only Alliance personnel are allowed inside the engine room and any other rooms like it, unless it is an absolute emergency. Any persons found _inside_ these such rooms that are not Alliance will be severely punished. Most likely on the spot execution." Jesep explained, "This shouldn't be a problem as soon most of you will be Alliance Employees or recruits, with all the psionic screening and investigations that includes. You can of course refuse, and maintain your citizenship to whoever is your parent government, but if you've come this far, we all know that none of you are choosing that."

"Good. Now that we have that out of the way, the _DPS Unity_ ," He began the briefing, turning to the image of the ship as the exterior showed again. He pointed to the back of the ship with the four propulsion units with a laser pointer, "there are four Alliance Class-D engines located at the back of the ship. They are the best the Alliance has available, based off the carrier and battleship designs. This is a class A security area, all engineering decks are reserved ONLY for engineering personnel, this is because," The image zoomed in on the engine deck's connecting hallways, "anyone who is unauthorized in there will only get in the way, and most likely, die from the various hazards in there if they don't know what they're doing. Security personnel will of course be briefed on safe navigation of the area."

"Like the engines, the rest of the ship is made of state of the art designs and equipment. This not only includes the latest ship mounted lasers, propulsion technology, command and control, but also a newly developed stealth technology. The Stealth related areas are also off limits to any non-Alliance personnel. Mention of it outside of people in this room will result in your NDA coming into effect and immediate incarceration. While the Salarians in the room already have a good idea of what it might be, the stealth works by hiding any and all heat emissions and thorough radar ablative coating. Unless the enemy knows every single rock in the system, they'd never even know the ship was there."

"Now then," Jesep continued, clasping his hands together, "with that out of the way, we will begin the tour of the ship shortly. For now, just remain in your seats and we will call you by your name and homeworld. We'll also be opening the divider to the lounge where we will have complimentary food and drink. Thank you."

 **2130 September 23rd 2:00 PM Earth Time**

 **classified facility orbiting Bismarck's Outpost, Alliance Space**

Nisky looked around the lounge, stepping inside the room. The room was colored in a light blue shade and lit by a single overhead light, giving the room a darkened feel and look. In the back corner of the room, a small bar stood with a Zudjari bartender wiping down a used glass. Attached to the counter's surface was a plaque that read 'No alcohol for event. Sorry'.

While Nisky wasn't normally one for a drink, especially ones without alcohol, he figured this one time wouldn't hurt. Walking up to the counter, the Zudjari waiter glanced up at him, "What you got?" Nisky inquired politely, leaning against the counter.

"We have some Liui left. Ginger ale as well, the good stuff not that mass produced soda crap." The Zudjari waiter drawled, shrugging. Nisky winced inwardly. Liui was a drink from one of the Alliance fringe colonies and was famed for it's sour and bitter taste, ginger ale was…. well ginger ale. Nisky figured that Liui was the closest thing to alcohol here on the station.

"I'll take a glass of Liui please." Nisky ordered nodding. The waiter took another look at the Volm before leaning down and grabbing a half filled bottle of Liui. The waiter then placed a exotically shaped quart glass on the counter and tipped the bottle, pouring the reddish colored liquid inside. The waiter handed the glass to Nisky who nodded his thanks. Not a moment after Nisky was handed the glass, did a giant of a figure come up next to Nisky.

Discreetly glancing up to see a giant of a muton, an oxymoron, but the muton was especially large for his species, who came and leaned against the counter next to him. The hardwood and plastic counter creaked under the weight, almost deceptively soft, as if the muton wasn't putting the full bulk of his weight upon the surface.

Even for a Muton, Nisky could tell that the alien easily dwarfed his kin, hell he easily dwarfed even the largest krogan in the crew by comparison. The Muton wore a red suit with black jeans, complimentated by a forest green beret on top of his head. If one looked hard enough, one could detect the faint outline of a vest underneath the suit. Unintimidated, the waiter just peered up at the muton. "Yes?"

"Why no alcohol?" The muton asked in a heavy Russian accent.

"We can't have drunk soldiers stumbling around with guns can we?" The waiter retorted, "Also, you're all technically on call, even if I HAD some alcohol, it'd be illegal for me to hand it out, and even more illegal for your to think of accepting it. Liui is all I got besides sugary fountain drinks and high quality ginger ale, take it or leave it. However, I will point out that our water is excellent." The waiter explained with a bored tone to his voice, putting the bottle of Liui back on the table.

The Muton glared daggers at the waiter but nodded stiffly, "I will have puny drink." The muton grunted, motioning for the waiter to pour a glass.

The waiter being zudjari was a master of his emotions, the effects of Mosaic upon his ancestors had been total, and nowadays Zudjari carefully groomed their emotions to be calm and steady, with a reputation for stoicism. This made them excellent psychologists as well, as the exploration of their own neurology and connection with Mosaic meant they had much to rediscover about themselves and others. Pouring the muton a drink before sliding it towards him. The Muton took the much more robust plastic cup in his large hands and deceptively sipped the drink down, draining the glass in one go. The Muton shook his head in disappointment, putting the glass down. "Why bother drinking if it doesn't even kick?"

It was unfortunate that mutons lacked the sophisticated sense of taste that other species had, the muton brain had been much more geared towards their own physical prowess on their high gravity homeworld, and tool use. In order to make up for this, muton cuisine was either remarkably bland, or extremely strong to the point of being unpalatable or even deadly for most other species. When a species considers weapon's grade lethal pepper spray merely mild, then one's sense of food was extremely different from normal people. Hell, Nisky had once seen a muton drink an entire barrel of ryncol and wasn't even phased, much to the amazement and cheering of the krogan pirates who provided it.

Nisky realized he had been staring blankly at the muton and looked down at his drink. It was normal for his species biologically to stare at the subject of thought while thinking, the difference in cultures and biology made the interaction between member species of the alliance difficult at times, as what one species or even cultural subgroup considered polite or suitably submissive, another would take for insulting or aggressive. It was unusual even now for mutons to go around without their armor for example, other species would consider going out in armor uncomfortable and a mark of looking for trouble, "You, small Volm male." Nisky looked back up at the Muton who now looked down on the smaller Volm. "You finish drink?" The Muton asked, motioning to Nisky's drink.

Nisky, sloshed the contents around, shaking his head slowly in the volm way of uncaring neutrality, and slid him the drink across the counter, the muton grabbing it extremely delicately. The Muton tilted his head back, gulping the Liui down. "Thank you for drink _Tovarishi_." The Muton acclaimed, shaking his head. "Name is Grigory, you?" The Muton continued, sticking out his enormous hand for Nisky to shake.

"Nisky, a pleasure." He nodded and hesitantly gripped the muton's hand, before moving forward his entire arms length to reach the muton's elbow as was custom, wincing as the muton crushed his arm at the shoulder. "Is good day, no?" The Muton commented joyfully, his voice still somewhat muffled by his atmosphere enhancer attached to his mouth, being from a high gravity world, his species was much more used to a denser atmosphere than most species could handle. Muton's also didn't breathe the normal oxygen nitrogen mix, but instead was best equipped to breath a methane nitrogen mix unlike most other races. Therefore they still required to wear air filters and enhancers in most environments.

Before Nisky could respond, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning around he saw an impatient looking human female in naval dress fatigues. "Captain Nisky Phoenix?" The woman asked, looking at her she had the rank of Lieutenant, with the emblem of liaison and staff offices attached to her beret.

Nisky nodded and stood, "That would be me lieutenant." The woman nodded stiffly and looked down at a clipboard.

"Director Lannern wishes to see you." The woman explained, looking up from her clipboard. "If you will follow me, I can escort you to his office." Nisky nodded, and followed the woman out of the lounge, giving a subtle nod to the muton in goodbye who nodded in return. That was at least shared by their species, the nod of respect between two warriors was exposed to be subtle, to be a mark that only one of keen mind could recognize.

They walked briskly for several minutes in total silence, passing several corridors filled with naval personnel and bored looking guards. Nisky glanced over at the woman who led him, making a point not to look at Nisky. It was extremely unusual for a direct escortation by a junior officer, or frankly any enlisted or officers, as the station AI typically handle such escortation as they were normally formalities and informal briefings. Finally, curiosity got the better of him.

"So how's the new boss?" He asked informally, the woman glancing back at him through the corner of her eye.

"Strictest man I met. He's also purely civilian too, went straight into intelligence for his compulsory conscription. However he's a well read and learned man in military science and matters, also from rumors I hear he has quite the track record in political circles." She replied stiffly. Nisky nodded, less than he hoped, more than he feared. This entire operation was sealed up tighter than an Ethereal's arse.

After another minute brisk walking, they arrived at a door, the woman the hand or equivalent appendage, to take a blood test, monitor heart beat, blood tests, fingerprint identification, and uniquely formed brands imprinted on all personnel in the alliance. Reproduction was literally impossible, and forced entry through a variety of quick and dirty means equally so inserting her hand into the alcove where it performed a variety of security procedures. Keycard s and the such had long ago been rendered obsolete or critical security weak point, now the modern day alliance security system required . Luna, the station AI, greeted the two after visual identification and unlocked the blastdoors which soundlessly opened.

After another minute brisk walking, they arrived at a door, the woman the hand or equivalent appendage, to take a blood test, monitor heart beat, blood tests, fingerprint identification, and uniquely formed brands imprinted on all personnel in the alliance. Reproduction was literally impossible, and forced entry through a variety of quick and dirty means equally so inserting her hand into the alcove where it performed a variety of security procedures. Keycard s and the such had long ago been rendered obsolete or critical security weak point, now the modern day alliance security system required . Luna, the station AI, greeted the two after visual identification and unlocked the blast doors which soundlessly door resounding with a click.

The woman swung the door open and motioned for Nisky to step inside. Nisky stepped inside, looking around. The room was the size of a typical office on a station this size, except it wasn't' taken up by cubicle like cells or sensory deprivation pods that would normally host up to half a dozen personnel working spaces, instead taken up by a single desk and a variety of holographic interfaces enough room to work but not too spacious. The room was lit by a single light strip which ringed the room above them, with a air vent strategically placed in the middle of the ceiling suspended by a ceiling fan. In the middle of the room sat what looked like an oakwood desk and a lamp, partially hidden under the piles of physical papers stacked mounted on the desk. The same man that had welcomed them sat at the desk, Director Lannern.

"Ah Captain Phoenix, I presume? Please forgive me for not standing, take a seat. I'll be on with you in a moment." Lannern greeted, giving a small smile before motioning for Nisky to sit down, His eyes never leaving the paper he was reading. From Nisky's view, he could tell the paper was encrypted in code, this man took the secrecy of the project to new extremes. This set off alarm bells in Nisky's mind, but it could very well have been something entirely unrelated to the current project. Nisky nodded stiffly, taking the seat offered to him. "A pleasure to meet you finally face to face, I've heard a lot about you." Lannern explained, his attention now on the Volm.

"The pleasure is all mine, Director." Nisky replied politely.

Lannern nodded, "So, Captain Phoenix," Lannern started, leaning back in his chair, "I know you've been through the psionic screenings, I've had you do several psychological evaluations, I've read your files, seen your written memoirs, both published and unpublished, even had a psych profile assembled about you with the psionic readings we have. But I must have your spoken word, can I trust you?"

Nisky blinked, "Sir?" He asked cautiously.

"You will be commanding the most advanced spacecraft in the known galaxy. I need to know if I can trust you. Of course I already know the theoretical answer, I've gone through all the options, and we both know I wouldn't have chosen you for this duty if I didn't believe you a loyal and capable citizen of the alliance. But I must ask all the same, can I trust you?" Lannern explained, his eyes seemingly boring a hole in Nisky.

"Yes sir, you can trust me to do my duty, to accomplish to the best of my ability any and all legal orders given to me, including the standard standing orders all alliance captains are required to uphold as well as the two unofficial rules for all commanders regardless of species, military, or creed." Nisky stated firmly.

"Good," Lannern commented, giving a tight and humorless smile. "This entire project is already on the line, there are already influential Alliance officials showing doubt in this program, they're afraid of what we might find out there and what that might mean for their positions." Lannern leaned in, "We can't afford any fuck ups here, the careers of everyone involved in this project are on the line. In short, I need a captain who will think of the mission first before all else, but not be so callous as to lose the respect and trust of the crew." Nisky nodded stiffly, not showing any emotion.

"You know my answer sir, I will perform the tasks required of me to the highest of my ability."

"Good, good." Lannern said, nodding. "Your first mission will be assigned to you within the week. Congratulations Captain Phoenix. Dismissed."

 **A/N: So there's the chapter, what do you all think? Better than the last chapter? Worse? Make sure to leave plenty reviews, I write these chapter for all of you so all feedback is appreciated. Again, sorry this chapter took so long to get out, stuff in life and school have held me back for writing this for so long. I promise the next one won't take so long!**


	11. Update

**Hello everyone. Yeah, I know. What happened to the whole 'it wouldn't be 6 months' shit. Well to put it bluntly, It's been… rough to say the least. Between the death of multiple family members, studying, school, and family shit it hasn't been doing a whole lot of progressing. And believe me, I feel like shit holding you guys without a chapter. And now school's about to start up again and well, to put it short I can't continue the story anymore. I know, i'm a piece of shit. But I can't reliably tell you that I can finish this.**

 **This story was supposed to be my redeemer story, to make up for all of my past bad ones. Instead, I've not only let all of my audience down but myself as well as a writer. I know I probably won't ever get such a high rated story ever out again, and I can understand people's unwillingness to trust in what I write anymore.**

 **Honestly, I had so much planned for this. Yet it turned out to be another huge failure. Go figure. Well, I suppose it was a good run while it lasted. All of my earlier chapters were rewritten. I began writing this when I was around 12 yo. To say I've come far as a writer is an understatement.**

 **To all of you who wanted another chapter, I have the remains of half of the next chapter below.**

" _ **I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination"**_

 _ **-Jimmy Dean**_

 **2130 September 24th 1::30 PM Earth Time**

 _ **DPS Unity**_ **in dock with classified facility orbiting Outpost Bismark, Alliance Space**

Nisky stepped into the elevator and punched in the number that would take him directly to his new ship. looking through the glass window of the elevator as it took him up to the ship, he could see engineers and workers making the final preparations to the ship. The 12 cm thick glass is a composite of four laminated panes consisting of a thin exterior debris pane that protects it from micrometeorites, two internal pressure panes, and an interior scratch paint to absorb accidental marking from inside. In other words, the sort of glass commonplace around Alliance space.

The elevator's doors retracted with a small _ding_. The 'new ship smell' was apparent as Nisky stepped through and onto the ship. Looking around, he could see crew milling about, his captain's outfit earning him a nod and a 'sir' from the crew. A holographic image of a male Human in standard Alliance dress clothes appeared next to him.

"Greetings, my name is Newton II, the resident AI of the _DPS Unity_. I take it you are captain Nisky Phoenix?" The AI said neutrally, staring at Nisky.

"That would be correct." Nisky said, shifting on his feet to face the AI directly. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Newton." Nisky dipped his head.

"Permission to speak freely sir?" Newton II asked. "Permission granted, Newton II." Nisky said. Newton II smiled. "Please, Newton is fine." The hologram formed a small smile. "It's an honor to finally meet the captain I will be serving sir." The hologram gave a small bow.

"Likewise." Nisky said neutrally. "Would you like a report on how the crew is doing?" Newton asked. Nisky nodded, hands behind his back as he started to walk down the corridor. The hologram followed Nisky down, sticking to the walls which emitted a soft glow to project the hologram forth.

"You'll be glad to know that the crew is learning quickly, their taking to the ship well. We had a little trouble in the engineering department-" Nisky raised a brow. "And what would this trouble be?" He asked, frowning. "Glitch in the system sir. Unexpected but we were able to fix the problem" Newton said. Nisky's frown deepened.

"A glitch?" Nisky asked. "Isn't this the most advanced ship in the galaxy?" He questioned. Newton's holographic head nodded. "Yes sir. But much of this technology is new and just being released from the labs to be used in the field." Newton said. Nisky sighed. "In any case, I want the ship to be ready in the hour. We're doing a training drill." Nisky grunted.

"I was previously informed." Newton replied. Nisky nodded. "Good." He said. They arrived at a set of double doors that opened automatically. Inside, was the bridge. It looked incredibly advanced, nothing like the standard Alliance ships Nisky had grown accustomed too. It had a sleek, trimmed look, monitors and people at those monitors typing away on holographic keyboards.

The walkway led to the front of the ship with a Vid screen showing the surrounding space. The Captain's chair stood suspended in air in the middle of the bridge, white and futuristic looking. Unlike the clunky and rooted to the floor command chairs in most fighting Alliance ships.

"Interesting." Nisky muttered, moving down the walkway and to the chair, tracing the form of it. "This is definitely… new." He said. Newton nodded.

"Yes sir, it is suspended by a small anti-grav generator underneath of it, holding it in place." Nisky came around and eased himself into the chair, feeling it out. The chair dipped down a little once he sat on it and he had to shift a little to get comfortable.

"Well, It's certainly different from other chairs in the SA." He nodded, getting off. Newton came to his side, the hologram floating beside him.

"It is. If you wish, we can have it rooted to the ground." Nisky nodded stiffly. "Noted." After another look around the bridge, they left, heading down another corridor. It wasn't long before they entered another room, filled with a huge table projecting an equally large holographic image of the galaxy.

"Here is the navigation chamber." Newton stated. People walked around the large room, monitoring the galactic map, making constant changes while several other people of all races worked at holographic monitors along the walls.

The room itself was seemingly an ever moving display of stars. The walls, floor and ceiling were covered in hexagonal panels, projecting the galaxy's vastness. Red dwarfs, neutron stars, pulsars, binary stars and supergiant stars.

"This room alone houses over ten petabytes of storage. Ranging from history of the galaxy to the nearest fast food joint." Nisky whistled. "Nice. Now, can this thing tell me where the nearest _Muton Joe's_ is?" Nisky allowed a small joke. The Hologram groaned.

"Do you know how many times people have asked me that question, sir?" Nisky looked up at the hologram. "How many, Newton?"

"Approximately 132 times sir." Nisky sighed. "It seems people have been keeping their priorities in check." He muttered. He walked into the room, people giving him sidewards glances and moving about the room, carrying about some task or another.

He looked down at the galactic map, the image minimizing so he could see the whole map without having to stretch. He looked it over, eyeing the area marked as 'uncharted space'. Citadel Space had large patches of it, due to the Citadel races using the Mass Relays which skipped over large patches of space. They still hadn't explored those areas, their FTL technology wasn't nearly as good as the Alliance's.

However Citadel Space didn't have the only areas marked as uncharted. Most of the Terminus systems were uncharted. Due to the many pirates, which the Alliance had begun removing, and the Batarian aid to warlords in the region, which was now abolished. There was now new space to explore.

"Looking for something sir?" A feminine voice asked from behind him. Nisky turned to face the voice, looking down. Behind him was a petite Human woman, coming up to around his chest, looking up at him. She had raven black hair, almond eyes and a blue and black uniform, cutting down the middle where the two colors mixed.

"I don't believe we've met. I'm chief navigator Keet." She said smiling, sticking out a hand to shake. Nisky sometimes didn't get why Humans had this tendency to shake hands when they met but did so anyway. The Navigator had a surprisingly strong grip, for someone so small.

"Captain Nisky Phoenix." He replied. "I was just looking around. It's a nice setup you have going here." He noted. Keet beamed. "Thank you sir! We just got the galactic map online, as you may have noticed." She informed him. He nodded.

"Right. I trust you that you were informed we are to be having a training drill in half an hour." She nodded. "Of course sir. We'll be ready." He nodded, looking about the room. "Good." He said, before turning to leave.

Nisky walked back out into the hall, Newton's hologram following him. "We're coming up on the security room." Newton told Nisky. "I would like to see it." Nisky said, glancing up at the hologram who nodded. "Very well, sir. It's the last chamber on our left." He instructed.

Nisky came to a large door, above it the words _'security chamber'_ shone in large bold letters. The door opened before him and he walked inside. The room was a huge arsenal, weapons of all kinds lined on the walls. There were already several people in the room, presumably security.

There were a variety of races, from Ethereals to Salarians, Mutons to Krogan. They were all dressed in navy blue uniforms, with the insignia for the Destiny Project over their chests. Most of them were looking over the guns, the Salarians particular. Most of the guns were Alliance, with a few being from the Council species for those who felt most comfortable with their guns.

"Captain!" Nisky turned to look at where the voice came from. A muton wearing the security Chief's Uniform came up to him. The muton dwarfed him and most everyone else in the room, save for a single Krogan in the back of the room inspecting a rather large shotgun.

 **Unfortunately, this is all I was able to do. So… I guess this is the end of the room. IDK if i'll ever return to the genre. Chances are I'll keep writing privately or some short stories. If I ever do return to writing this however, It'll be a while… So as a closing statement, peace out and god bless you all for being such a great audience.**


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